Four Brothers and A Sister
by HollyPup
Summary: Set during and possibly after the movie. Pretty much same general plot, but with the added twist of the four loveable Mercers having a sister, whose name isn't actually Mercer. Please R&R, I need feedback.
1. In Love With a Mercer

Disclaimer: Yeah, I don't own any of the characters, except for Brittany, nor do I take credit for any of them. I also do not take credit for a lot of the dialogue that will be used, since this is set during the movie.

Notes: This is my first shot at a Four Brothers fanfic, so be easy on me. I really love the movie and I hope it shows. Enjoy!

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**Chapter One: In Love with a Mercer**

Scenes of snow covered ground and cloudy skies blurred past one of the windows of Greyhound Bus number sixteen. Brittany Coleman, who had fought very hard for the window seat on this particular trip, smiled appreciatively out at the view from her side of the glass. The early morning sun shone like a diamond in the grey heavens, reflecting off of the snow with a glistening beauty. It was as if the entire world was trying to cheer her up. God knew she needed it. She let out a heavy sigh, not the first time in the last twenty-four hours, which fogged up her window. Before the cloud of condensation faded away she drew a small, sloppy heart with her index finger. She gazed at it fondly, and then turned her head to look at the person sitting in the aisle seat next to her. The man occupying said seat had his head leaned back on the headrest in slumber, his nappy hair pushed into an even more untidy pile than normal. Music could be heard coming from the big headphones, looking a lot like strange earmuffs warming his ears, and its familiarity seemed to make everything brighter, pulling a smile out of Brittany. She recognized it as a copy of one of his own demo recordings, which just made her smile grow wider, and anyone who could see her right then, could also see there was nothing but love in that smile.

"Attention riders," the driver's voice suddenly said over the intercom that was link throughout the bus, his voice sounding much more robotic than it probably was, and Brittany turned her head upward to listen more clearly, "We have just crossed over the Michigan border." There was a fairly loud mixture of cheering and clapping at these words, and it amused Brittany to see that her seat partner remained sleeping through the noise.

"Our stops in this fine state," the driver continued after the applause had died down, "include Detroit, Lansing…" Brittany didn't wait to hear the rest. She had lowered her head and resumed gazing out of the window. Just hearing the name had stunned her almost into complete shock. It had been a long time since she had heard it.

"Detroit," she breathed, fogging up the window again, "I'm going home. God help me, I'm going home." She turned in her seat so that her upper body was now facing the man beside her. She gazed thoughtfully at him a moment, and then reached down and grabbed the compact disc player that his headphones was attached to. With a smirk she casually turned the volume dial all the way to maximum with a few quick flicks. The result was almost immediate as she heard the music now blared from the headphones. The man jumped almost completely out of his seat and into the aisle, while Brittany shook violently in her own seat with silent giggles.

"Shit!" he shouted, practically tearing the earphones from his head. A woman sitting across from them with her daughter looked at them scornfully, but neither of them noticed. Brittany's giggles soon subsided and she smiled sweetly at him.

"What was that for?" he asked her with hurt curiosity.

"We're almost there," she told him, her voice suddenly laden with a soft sadness, "Next stop." The man looked at her, though Brittany could tell he wasn't really seeing her, and then he let out a great, melancholy sigh, leaning his head back on the headrest and closing his eyes, as though going back to sleep.

"Jack, don't do that." She reached out a hand and placed it gently on his arm. "I've cried enough today. Save the tears for the funeral." She continued looking at him with a small smile now, and he opened one eye to look back at her. In a moment he smiled softly himself. She wrapped her arms as much around him as she could in their position, and he did the same so that they were in an awkward embrace.

"You think Bobby's going to be there?" Jack asked casually when they were both leaned back in their seats, though he was periodically looking out the window now, as though he couldn't believe he was really seeing these places again. Brittany smiled a bit and then shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know," she said truthfully, "I'd like to say that I know he'll be there for mom's funeral, but we've been gone so long that I just don't know anymore." As an afterthought she added, "I hope so."

Their bus pulled into its station a little under an hour later. Jack got up first and grabbed both their bags from the overhead compartment. He stood back while Brittany stood up, wincing at the numbness in her fanny. Leading the way, she exited the bus, Jack close behind her with their luggage. They stood there in the cold of Detroit several minutes, watching the other passengers get their stuff and leave, as though neither of them were sure of how to proceed. They glanced at each other, and something clicked into place. Both of them smiled at one another and began walking in the same direction. It was like those few minutes were enough time for everything to come rushing back to them. They knew exactly where they were going now and they walked with a sorrowful confidence, also knowing why they were heading in this direction. On the way Jack took a cigarette out and lit it.

"Jack, must you do that," Brittany said as soon as she saw it. Jack stared guiltily down at it and then at her. His eyes showed and inner struggle that hurt her way deep down and she sighed, defeated. She couldn't tell him not to smoke. Not today, and she knew it. Probably not ever again. It never really worked anyway.

When Brittany and Jack reached the cemetery, it was like a repeat of what it was like at the bus station. They just stood there, each holding their own bag. People had already congregated around a large coffin, but a sudden, crippling grief had seemed to take hold of the two. Brittany didn't know if she would ever be able to move closer than where she was now. Jack looked to be in about the same predicament. His cigarette was hanging limp and forgotten in his other hand. This was just too much. Brittany could feel the tears already trying to force their way through, and she tried desperately to hold them back but it was no use. Two drops rolled down her cheeks. She just couldn't do it.

"Are you two just going to stand there all day staring at the place?" said a voice behind them. Brittany recognized it immediately and dropped her suitcase. She spun around and threw her arms around her big brother, letting the tears fall freely now.

"Oh, Bobby," she sobbed roughly into his shoulder as she felt his strong arms wrap around her, "Bobby who could have done this to Mom?"

"I don't know," he said, letting Brittany take a step back and dry her eyes, "I don't know, but we're going to find out." They locked eyes a moment and Brittany nodded firmly. Bobby broke into a grin and he looked up at Jack, who was still standing there watching the two of them.

"Jackie," Bobby said happily as he pulled Jack into a hug, "Hey, little brother, how's the music business been treating you? I see you still don't know how to use a hairbrush." He ruffled Jack's messy hair, and Jack gave him a playful shove. Bobby chuckled, and Brittany smiled as she watched them. It was like no time had passed between them, and that seemed to make everything alright.

"For your information," Jack was telling Bobby, "I've been doing very well for myself." At that Bobby outright laughed, and Brittany had to raised a mittened hand to stifle her own laughter. Jack shot her a glare, and she smiled apologetically. Bobby opened his mouth, probably to respond with a litany of negative comments, but Brittany managed to cut him off.

"So where's Jerry, and Angel?" she asked curiously, looking around as though thinking they would pop up from around a headstone. Bobby did the same, his smile gone now.

"I don't know, but as soon as they show up I'm smacking them into next week," he said harshly, "Being late for mom's funeral." Brittany shook her head. Same old Bobby.

"Like you still could, Bobby," retorted another familiar voice, "You maybe sneak-attacked me a few times as a kid, but I can still take you in a fair fight." All three of them turned and smiled as a lanky, dark-skinned man came ambling towards them, hands shoved into the pockets of his heavy winter coat.

"Jeremiah," said Brittany, as though she couldn't believe who she was seeing, "Oh, it's so good to see you." She embraced him as she had Bobby, though maybe not as fiercely.

"You too, little sister," Jeremiah replied, and then let her go to look at Bobby and Jack, "I never thought I'd see either of your sorry asses again." Brittany watched as her brothers exchanged hugs and insults, folding her arms for warmth as a cold breeze picked up through the cemetery. They all looked at each other after the re-introductions had been made, and without a word, proceeded towards the burial spot together.

The service was short and sweet, and while the minister read from the Bible, Brittany looked around in awe at all of the people that had showed up. As a child she remembered her mother knowing many people and it had astounded her back then too, but looking around at all the faces, she realized she didn't recognize half of them. Before they lowered the coffin into the ground, Brittany left Jack's side and walked forwards. She would always remember that walk, because it seemed like the casket was miles away. She would always remember how shiny the wood looked even though the winter sun was half hidden behind the clouds. She had no flowers, not trinket to bury with her mother, but for a moment or two she placed her hand upon the smoother surface of the sepulcher, and then she turned around and walked back to Jack. She had done what she had not been sure she would have been able to do. Now she just grabbed Jack's hand tight in her's and waited for it all to be over.

Before leaving the cemetery, Jeremiah had told all of them that he was having a few people over at his house, gave those directions, and got into his own car with his wife. Bobby had walked to his old, beat-up car, and he offered Brittany and Jack a ride, but they told him to go on without them, that they preferred to walk. Bobby arched an eyebrow as he stood with his car door open, staring at his two youngest siblings.

"Alright, but if you two aren't there in ten minutes I'm coming after both of you, and if I catch either of you with your pants down your deadmeat," he told them seriously.

"Bobby, its forty degrees outside," Brittany told him matter-of-factly, "I think we can wait till we're at Jerry's." That got Bobby laughing, and he finally got into his car and left, leaving the young pair behind, standing outside the cemetery gates.

Brittany looked up at Jack, noticing in that glance how he had seemed to regain the troubled look he had carried in his younger years. That look that told the world that something really bad had happened in his past, and that it would affect him all of his life. It frightened her slightly because when the two of them had left Detroit, all of that had seemed to slip off of him like a blanket being taken away, and she had grown comfortable with that version of Jack Mercer. Then he looked down at her, and the look in his eyes was so strong, so warm, that she almost didn't believe she had seen what she knew she saw in him in that moment. She couldn't help but smile, and he smiled back, slipping an around her shoulders. They had tossed their suitcases into Bobby's car, so they walked unencumbered and in silence down the snow-covered streets, together like they had been doing things for six years. There had been many walks in the winter snow in their youth, though many of those walks had been timed walks to the market on 104th Street and back. Oh no, that had been a bad thing to think about. Brittany suddenly felt the tears start viciously anew, and she was forced to halt, her body shuddering with the held in sobs. Jack immediately stopped with her and tightened his arm around her.

"Come on, just let it out now," he told her gently, hugging her to him, "Don't hold it in anymore." So she let it out.

By the time they reached Jeremiah's house, most of the guests had already arrived, and they could both see him standing at the front door in full winter wear greeting people. Bobby was just pulling up in his car as Brittany and Jack stopped on the sidewalk across the street. A flash of curiosity crossed over Brittany's mind, and she was surprised at how quickly her old instincts took over and told her to forget about it. Bobby's business was Bobby's business. End of story. She began to cross the street just the same, drawn to her older brother like iron to a magnet. She was halfway across when she looked back over her shoulder and saw jack still standing on the sidewalk she had just left, a cigarette already between his teeth. He was rummaging around in his pocket, probably for a lighter or matches, when he lifted his gaze and saw her staring at him expressionlessly. He stared back, like a kid caught sneaking a cookie out of the cookie jar before dinner, and finally she gave in and continued across the street, not looking back again. She stepped onto the other sidewalk as Bobby finished locking up his car. He grinned when he saw her, and she grinned back.

"So what took you kids so long?" he asked her with a smirk. Brittany threw him a hard glare.

"What took _you_ so long?" she retorted without thinking. Bobby's grin suddenly slid off his face like water and his expression became that of utmost seriousness. Brittany quickly removed her own smile and stared back with a similar expression, though hers was more akin to the simple look that a sister gives her brother when he looks like that.

"You know what took me so long, so don't ask stupid questions," he said simply, and for a few moments they held a silent conversation, of the type that only siblings can seem to hold successfully, talking only with their eyes. If asked outright, Brittany would tell anyone that she loved all of her adopted brother the same, with the exception of Jack, but inside Brittany would always know that with Bobby it was different. Her feelings for him, while still very much those felt between siblings, were, for lack of a better word, stronger, and there was really no explanation for it. She could have just as easily become as attached to Angel, or Jeremiah, but that had not been the case. She had not so much been drawn to Bobby in the beginning, but yanked towards him, and that had sealed their relationship forever.

"I can't believe you still let him do that," he said, suddenly breaking the trance-like state they had both been in, and nodding his head towards Jack. Brittany glanced in the same direction, but Jack had his back turned towards them. She looked back at Bobby and shrugged.

"I've been trying to get him to quit for six years," she said with a sigh, "I think it's time for me to give up." Bobby nodded silently, not really smiling, but his face didn't hold the same intensity now as it had before. He clapped his mittened hands together and rubbed them to create warming friction.

"OK, well, I'll go collect the little fairy, and you go on into the house where it's warm," he told her, with almost fatherly stern that made a soft smile appear on her lips.

"Yes, Dad," she said sweetly, and Brittany just barely caught a glimpse of his smile as she turned and walked up the path to the brick house that was apparently where her brother Jeremiah lived. He met her at the door and they gave each other another embrace, but there was not time for anything to be said as more people appeared and Brittany had to move inside to make room for them.

It was definitely warmer inside the house than outside in the bitter Detroit winter, but Brittany didn't remove her coat. She just took her time admiring the neatly decorated halls and rooms, almost ashamed to find that she was surprised to see that Jerry had such a nice house. She quickly turned away from the fancy, classical living room and walked through the hallway that led to the kitchen. There were pictures hanging everywhere, most of them featuring Jeremiah's wife and two daughters. However, here and there, were a few pictures taken before all the Mercers went their separate ways. It was one of these pictures that caused Brittany to stop and take a closer look. There she stood, a child of sixteen, surrounded by four boys, and a short, white-haired woman that was their mother. Brittany stood there, hands in her pockets, staring at the picture, when some little detail caught her eye, and she suddenly turned around and head quickly back out of the house. She walked out just as Bobby, Jack, and Jeremiah were heading in. Jeremiah was knocking Jack's cigarette out of his hand, and they had obviously been talking about something that had happened in the past, because they were all beaming brightly.

"Bobby, I need to get into my suitcase," she said, and at once all three heads turned towards her, "Is it still in your car?"

"Yeah," he said, brows furrowed, as he rummaged around in his pocket and pulled out his car keys, "Everything alright?" He tossed them to her.

"Yeah," she replied as she caught them, "I just need something." Bobby shrugged, 'Alright', and she headed down the front steps, as her brothers headed into the house.

"Hey, no joy riding," Bobby called after her.

"No promises," she called back without looking over her shoulder.

Brittany stepped across the front lawn, pulling her jacket closer around her, and walked briskly to Bobby's car. She slipped the key into the lock on the passenger side door and pulled it open with a groan. She reached around and unlocked the back door on her side. Re-closing the front door she opened the back door and bent down so that she could open her bag, which was still sitting on the backseat like she had left it. She opened it up and dug through the assorted belongings she had brought with her, looking for something that she had almost forgotten she had packed. While she was looking, two men walked by in deep conversation, and stopped a little ahead of the car. Not meaning to, but unable to prevent herself from picking up her old habit, she listened in on what they were saying while she searched.

"So just remember, Fowler, Bobby might be the ringleader, but the others aren't stupid either," one man said, and Brittany stopped her searching to listen better, unaware that she had curled her hand around the thing she had been looking for, "Especially that sister of theirs.

"Sister?" inquired Fowler puzzled, "You told me about the four brothers, but you said nothing about a sister."

"Yeah, Brittany."

"I don't remember a Brittany Mercer in the files you gave me." Before the other man could answer, the one who's Brittany knew she recognized, she stood up and closed the door with a bang, causing both men, cops in fact, jump. Realizing she had something in her hand she looked down, twitched a smile, and then shoved the worn out baseball cap over her head. A barely readable Detroit Tigers emblem was embroidered in now faded colors on the front.

"That would be because my name isn't Mercer," she said hotly, "My last name is Coleman." Both men looked at her, but only one of them smiled.

"It's good to see you again, Brittany," the first man said. She smiled back.

"It's good to see you too, Green," she replied.

"Wait," said Fowler, "If her last name isn't Mercer, then how are they her brothers?" He had not directed the question at her, like he didn't think that her word would mean much anyway, but being the person that she was, being Bobby Mercer's sister, she answered him anyway.

"Because Evelyn Mercer did not adopt me. However, she was just as much my mother as theirs, and the only reason she didn't adopt me was because I wouldn't let her."

"Why not?" asked Fowler, finally seeming to acknowledge her presence. Brittany stared at him blankly and then walked hurried back to the house and went inside. Fowler looked at his partner, Green, who was staring after her, a far away look on his face.

"Boss?" Fowler said, and Green slowly turned to look at him.

"She fell in love with a Mercer."


	2. Just like when they were Kids

Disclaimer: Yeah, I don't own any of the characters, except Brittany, nor do I take any credit for any of them. I also do not take credit for a lot of the dialogue that will be used, since this is set during the movie.

Notes: Ok, well, after a lot of good reviews for chapter one, I hope I get the same reaction to this chapter. It's going to get slightly choppy as it goes, I think. At least, that's what I'm worried about it. It's getting in to the more dialogue-filled area of the movie, meaning there's going to be a lot of talk. It will not all be strictly from the movie. I have a lot of scenes played out myself, or some scenes tweaked to make them a little more entertaining, in my eyes at least. On that note, I would like to apologize in advance that not all of the dialogue from the movie will be 100 accurate. I'm not a machine, and while my memory is good, it's not perfect. I can't keep going into my room and watching parts of the movie (which I only have till Thursday anyway because I rented it) and check what each character is saying. Some bits will be left out, some will be slightly different, but it will all be essentially the same, and I promise that all of the important elements of the general storyline will not be forgotten. Well, without further ado, I give you Chapter Two.

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**Chapter Two: Just like when they were Kids**

Only Bobby really noticed the hat that Brittany came back from the car wearing. He even went as far as to snatch the cap off of her head and played a sixty-second game of keep away with her. During that minute, she actually managed to get her older brother to the ground and say down hard on his back, listening to him emit a satisfying grunt. She felt him struggle beneath her, but she held her position firmly. _Just like when we were kids_. That thought had come so suddenly, and hit her with such force, that for a moment, Brittany forgot what she was doing. Bobby, ever the opportunist, took advantage of this and in an instant turned roughly to his side, sending her flying and then skidding over the ground with a thud.

"See," he said arrogantly as he stood up and brushed himself off, "There's no way you can hold me down forever." After wiping the dirt off of his coat, he walked over to where Brittany lay in a heap, examining her arms and legs.

"Yeah, yeah," she said irritably, grabbing his hand when he offered it to her and heaving herself up, "Can I please just have the hat back?" Bobby smirked, though there was a touch of sibling love in that smirk, and pushed the hate back on her head backwards.

"That's how you always used to wear it," he said, his voice suddenly reminiscently solemn. She gazed at him peculiarly, and then smile and embraced him fiercely. As they hugged one another, something seemed to click, like it had when Brittany and Jack had been standing at the bus stop, wondering where to go, but she couldn't put her finger on exactly what had happened.

"Hey, Brittany," she heard Jeremiah call from the house, "Can you come and help Camille carry the food into the living room?"

"Yeah, coming," she called back as she released Bobby, still trying to figure out what had just happened. She and Bobby exchanged a glance, as though he had felt it too, and then she was turning away form him and heading towards the house.

"You're a policeman," said a small voice behind her, one she recognized as Jerry's youngest daughter, Amelia's. She paused, having just pulled the sliding glass door open, and looked back, observing that Green and the other man, Fowler, had entered the backyard through the side gate. Brittany had not mentioned overhearing their conversation earlier to anyone, and neither of the cops were showing any signs of having spoken to her either, like the three had made an unspoken pact.

"That's right, and you're all under arrest so nobody move," Green said light heartedly. Brittany didn't hear anything else, though she could have sworn she heard Bobby begin to say something before she stepped the rest of the way into the house and shut the sliding door behind her.

Just a few minutes later, Green, Fowler, Bobby, and Jack all came inside the house to escape the snow that had started falling. Brittany barely noticed since she was in the living room, trying not to drop the bowls of food she was carrying. She had a firm grip on the tortilla chips, and the salsa, but it was the guacamole that she was worried about. It was perched precariously in the crook of her arm and she was forced to walk very slowly, and carefully. Finally, she made it safely to the table and set the chips down. She grabbed the salsa with her now freed hand and put both dips on either side of the chips. She had pulled her espresso hair up into a ponytail, not seeming to realize that doing so had been something her mother had taught her to do whenever she was handling food ("You don't like the taste of hair do you? Then don't leave yours in the food."). The ponytail was tied loosely, so she could keep her baseball cap on backwards comfortably. Absorbed in what she was doing, Brittany also didn't seem to realize that Green was standing calmly behind her. She turned around, planning on heading back in the kitchen, and then nearly leapt backwards into the table that she had just placed the chips and dip on, surprised with Green's sudden presence.

"Whoa, easy there, Brittany," he said alarmed, reaching out both hands to steady her, "You alright? I didn't mean to startle you."

"Yeah, I'm okay," she said, waving her hand at him, "You just surprised me is all. Anyway, it's good to see you again, Green." She had said this before outside when she had grabbed her hat, but it seemed to mean something more now. Green could not really have been considered a friend of the Mercer family, more like a good acquaintance, but they had all been on good terms with each other. Now, two years since she had last seen him, Brittany gave Green a short hug.

"Its good to see you, too," Green said, hugging her back, "It hasn't been the same without Brittany Mercer around."

"Coleman, Green. My last name is Coleman."

"What, you mean you and Little Jack haven't gotten hitched yet? You two have been gone for two years, and practically inseparable for six." Brittany shrugged.

"We've been busy," she explained, "I'm his manager you know? He and the band have been doing pretty good for themselves. But the hectic schedule hasn't left time for much else except traveling." Green nodded, but Brittany could tell he was skeptical. To change the subject, Brittany nodded her head in the direction of the spot Fowler was standing, looking around scrutinizing, as though he expected to find something criminal where ever he went.

"So who's the nerd?" she asked Green curiously. Green glanced behind him at Fowler and chuckled softly.

"My new partner, Fowler," he told her, "I'm sorry for his attitude outside. He's a by-the-book man. After reading your brothers' files, I doubt he'd trust a Mercer if his life depended on it." Brittany stared at him grimly, seeing the truth in his eyes.

"What about me?" she inquired casually. Green smiled at her with an expression like 'Wake up and smell the coffee'.

"Brittany, you can argue all day that you're not a Mercer because Evelyn never adopted you, but at the end of the day you're still calling her Mom, and at least three of those delinquents that she did adopt are still your brothers. You're a Mercer whether you like or not, regardless of your last name." The two locked eyes for several moments, and finally Brittany nodded and squeezed past him, heading back to the kitchen. Green watched her go, a soft smile on his face.

Later that night, Brittany and the three Mercer men pulled up in front of another clean cut, brick house. Brittany and Jack had driven with Bobby, and Jerry had taken his own car. Brittany stared out of the window for a moment, the nostalgia so great this time she felt dizzy. It still looked exactly the same. She gave the back door of Bobby's car a shove to get it open and then stepped out onto the sidewalk. Jack came out on the other side, carrying both their bags. He and Bobby were laughing about something, but Brittany hadn't been paying attention to the conversation in the car. She had been wrapped up in her own thoughts. Now, she turned her attention to the boys, as Bobby and Jack resumed their bantering.

"So, Bobby, what have you been up to?" Jack asked.

"Oh, I'm a freaking college professor Jack," Bobby replied sarcastically, "What do you think I've been doing?" The rest was lost on Brittany, because she had hurried a little ahead of her brothers, though she was sure Bobby was throwing the usual homosexual references Jack's way. It had never much bothered Brittany, the way they all teased him. They were brothers, and that's what brothers do. She just jogged up the steps and opened the door that led into the indoor porch that came before the actual house. Just behind her came her brothers, Jeremiah stepping forward to unlock the front door.

"Y'all ain't right leaving me out here in the cold like this," a voice told them from the shadows. While Brittany, Bobby, and Jack all looked around for the voice's source, Jeremiah reached a hand up and yanked the chain that turned the porch light on. The hanging light bulb cast a sudden, dull glow on all of the assorted belongings on the porch. There was a chess board set up in one corner, and Brittany remembered the many hours spent on rainy days over there, beating the crap out the four knuckleheads she lived with. In the other corner, sitting there in all of his pretty boy glory, the last of the Mercer brothers, Angel, rocked rhythmically back and forth in an aged rocking chair. Brittany smiled as she laid eyes on the youngest of her older brothers. Bobby, on the other hand, immediately started in on him.

"Serves you right, little brother, you asshole," Bobby shouted. Angel held his hands out in innocent pleading.

"I missed my flight," he explained to them.

"Yeah," Bobby said, walking forward, "You missed our mom's funeral too, jarhead." Bobby hugged Angel first, and then stood aside to make room for Jeremiah and Jack to greet their brother. Brittany remained where she was, just calmly watching everything. Jeremiah went back to unlocking the door after he was done embracing his younger brother, and Jack stepped forward and gave Angel a short hug.

"Hey, Jack," Angel said with a large grin. Jack grinned back and then bent forward, as though examining his big brother's face.

"Did you get your teeth whitened?" he asked jokingly. He grinned wider at his own wit.

"Shut up, Jackie-poo," said Angel in retaliation, while Brittany and the others laughed. Angel looked over at Brittany, and for the final time, Brittany seemed to hear a barely audible click as brother and sister wrapped their arms around each other. They were all here now. They were all together, at last, after so many years. That was what the clicking had been. That was what had happened back at Jerry's house when Bobby had placed her Detroit Tigers hat on her head backwards and she had hugged him. They were whole again.

One-by-one they entered the house of their childhood, each one struck with powerful force by their own memories that had long ago been stored away in a dark corner of their minds. Except maybe Jeremiah, because he was the only one who hadn't left. Brittany almost staggered with the sudden weight of the flashbacks that were suddenly streaming through the forefront of her mind, making her head spin. She grabbed the sleeve of Jack's jacket and held on tight. He looked down at her, but she was too focused on staring at the unchanged household. It was as though nothing had been touched. Everything was still in the same place that it had been the day that Brittany and Jack had stepped out of the house, on their way to New York to try and further Jack's career in music. The silence seemed just as heavy. They all seemed to be waiting for someone else to speak. It seemed natural that it was Bobby who broke the quietude.

"Angel, you take your old room," he said, looking to his left, "Jack, you and Brittany take your old room. I'm going to sleep in Mom's room." Jeremiah had already strayed off into what had once been his bedroom, and the others climbed the stairs to their own bedrooms.

"Yeah, hey kids," Bobby called when they reached the second floor landing and he headed to their mother's room, "No doing anything dirty tonight you understand?"

"Yeah," Brittany replied sarcastically, "Because coming home to the house you grew up in after your mother's wake is just so romantic, Bobby." She shook her head and then turned with Jack in the direction their bedroom had been.

Brittany and Jack stood in the doorway of their room momentarily, both seeming temporarily stunned at the sudden memories the room recalled. They looked at each other, Jack seeming to tower over Brittany like he hadn't for years, and something they saw in each other's eyes seemed to make it easier to walk in. Brittany set their luggage in the corner and then sat down on the bed next to Jack, who had taken out his guitar, and was tuning it methodically, his face nothing but concentration. She sat down sideways behind him and placed her chin on his left shoulder.

"I saw you talking to Green back at Jerry's house," Jack said after a few seconds of silence, not looking up from his guitar. Brittany sat back, looking at him curiously.

"Yeah," she said, "I was talking to him." From many years experience, she knew that there was more to what he was saying. More he wanted to know.

"What about?" he asked her, suddenly turning his head and locking eyes with her. Blue meets brown. Brittany sighed.

"Nothing important," she told him, swinging her legs around him so that they hung over the edge of the bed, "He wanted to know why we weren't married yet. He's got a new partner you know?" The sudden change of subject was a trick she has used in the past with a very low success rate. She didn't expect it to work now.

"Really?"

"Yes, really." Jack seemed to think on that a moment, his guitar that was in need of tuning forgotten momentarily.

"Why is that?" he asked after a minute or two. Brittany's brows furrowed.

"Why is what?" she replied, confused.

"Why aren't we married yet? God knows I've proposed enough times. At least four...I think." He looked at Brittany complacently, waiting for an answer. Brittany looked back at him with wide eyes. She hadn't been expecting that one. After a moment or two, she sighed again.

"I told Green it was because we were busy," she said, pausing for a second, as though trying to pick her words carefully, "But that's not the real reason. The real reason is that...I didn't want to get married without Bobby, Angel, and Jeremiah there. With Angel in the Marines, Jeremiah busy, and Bobby, well, being Bobby, there was just no way we could do that. Mom would have gone anywhere in the country to be there if we did, but it wouldn't have seemed right if our brothers weren't there." There, she had finally told him, and she felt a lot better.

Brittany loved Jack, though she supposed she didn't say that enough, but it was implied in everything they did. They were not like other people in love, who said those three little words any chance they got. They were not always worried about making sure the other knew how they felt. Their relationship had been started out trying to act like siblings, but it had soon become clear that that just was not working for them. They knew they loved each other, and always would. Jack gazed at her a few moments longer, and then smiled, satisfied, and went back to tuning his guitar. Brittany smiled at him, his kid-like reactions always bringing a grin out of her. She leaned forward, planted a kiss on his cheek, and then curled up behind him on the bed, exhausted from the day's events.

An hour or so later, Brittany and Jack laid side-by-side on the bed, Jack strumming his guitar, Brittany with her head resting on his chest. She was very much awake, but not for long. Jack was playing a soft, mellow tune, though still somewhat mournful. It seemed everything had been like that since Jeremiah had gotten in touch with all of them. They were of course sad, anguished even, but somewhere beneath that laid a soft, soothing feeling, like the warmth that accompanies a bad scrape to the knee. There is good in all bad. That had been something their mother had taught them. Now, it seemed like Brittany really understood what she had meant.

"You crying in here you little fairy?" said a voice, Bobby's, and Brittany opened an eye and watched her brother sit down on the floor and lean against the bed. Jack set aside his guitar and started searching around in the pockets of his coat.

"Leave it alone, man," he told Bobby, who pretended not to hear him.

"You still making a lot of racket on the thing?" he asked Jack teasingly. Brittany rolled her eyes and adjusted her position as Jack began rolling a cigarette.

"Yeah," Jack said smiling, and moving a lock of his hair from his eyes, "Still making a lot of racket." Brittany smiled sleepily herself.

"Bobby don't give him a hard time," she said, her voice against the jacket that Jack was still wearing, "He's good at what he does." Though she didn't see it, Jack smiled gratefully down at her.

"Yeah, I'm sure he is," Bobby said absently. There was a moment of silence.

"Too weird in Mom's room?" Jack asked curiously. Bobby sighed with a certain amount of release, as though he had been waiting to be asked so that he could say something without seeming like a wuss.

"Oh man, way too weird," he said, leaning his head back on the bed, "It's crazy. Everything's exactly the same. She didn't change anything in this house." Another moment passed.

"She never had to," Brittany said simply. They were all silent until they heard Jeremiah walk up and lean in the doorway. He stood there staring at him. They all stared back at him. He chuckled.

"Look at y'all," he said, smiling widely.

"What?" said Bobby. Jeremiah shrugged.

"Nothing, man" he said, "I'm just happy to see you guys. Happy to see my brothers, that's all." That pulled another grand smile out of all of them.

"Gee, thanks Jeremiah, I love you too," Brittany said jokingly, referring to the fact that he had not included her in that. Jeremiah looked suddenly guilty.

"Oh, Brittany, I'm sorry. I just-"

"Yeah, I know, Jerry. I was joking. You guys used to do that all the time, you know, refer to me as one of the guys. I think we're all sort of falling back into the pattern we created when we were all still living here." They all looked at her a moment, and then nodded, seeming to accept her theory as being true.

"Well, I guess I'll stop by the store tomorrow," said Jeremiah, "I'll pick up a turkey, and we can have a Thanksgiving dinner. While we're all here we might as well act like a family. Mom would have liked that." All four of them were silent then. Bobby was staring at the wall, Brittany was staring at Bobby, Jeremiah was still staring at all of them, and Jack had lit his cigarette, blowing a puff of smoke into the middle of the room. Then, just like when they were kids, Angel broke their deep thought as his boots thudded on the carpeted landing as he headed towards the stairs, sighing.

"Where you going, man?" Jeremiah asked him as he was about to head downstairs. Angel looked over at them.

"It's a little heavy in here, man. I'm going to get me some air." Jeremiah chuckled, Brittany chuffed a few muffled giggles into Jack's coat, and Bobby laughed loudly at that. Jack just blew another cloud of cigarette smoke into the room. Angel stared back at them all, trying to appear confused.

"Man, I can't believe you," Bobby said, still laughing, "You can smell that ass from down the street, huh?"

"What are you talking about?" Angel asked him irritably.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about with La Vida Loca." It was almost amusing to watch. Angel was getting angrier by the second, as though Bobby was doing him some great injustice.

"Man, ain't no one going to get no La Vida Loca." He looked about ready to punch something. Jeremiah, who had been chuckling harder by the minute finally looked over at his little brother and smiled.

"She got a boyfriend," he said.

"She got a boyfriend," Bobby repeated, "She's got hard dick in her right now, she's screaming somebody else's name, and the last thing she's doing is thinking about your black ass." Jack and Brittany both started laughing so hard, that Brittany actually had to partially sit up and hold her stomach. Jack was in about the same predicament, practically ready to fall off the bed. Brittany wrapped an arm around him to steady him, careful of his cigarette.

"I can't believe you're all coming at me with this," Angel said indignantly, their laughter momentarily pausing so they could hear him, "I'm standing here telling you all I'm not going to see that girl, and I'm not!" With that he turned and stormed down the stairs, and they heard the front door slam shut. They all started howling with laughter again, and took a few minutes for it to taper off into soft gurgles. Brittany and Jack resumed their position on the bed, though Brittany was not quite awake, and had her chin rested upon the lower part of her arm so that her voice would not be muffled anymore. Bobby remained on the floor, and Jeremiah went off to go get something to eat in the kitchen, the laughter seeming to bring about his hunger. Brittany grinned as she stared at her oldest brother.

"Bobby," she said, trying not to start laughing again, "I just realized you're wearing a tie." Jack gave a few loud chuckles at that, while Bobby looked down, lifting the tie and examining it for a minute. Then he grinned.

"Yeah, well, I thought it was appropriate," he replied. He looked over at her, and the siblings smiled at each other, that same old connection seeming to make itself known. It seemed incredible that for the last six years they had been apart from each other. There seemed to have been no time passed between them. It was as though they were still teenagers, frolicking around and running amok through the city. Oh, the trouble they had gotten into. It was enough to make Brittany grin fit to burst.

"Alright, well, I'm getting tired," announced Bobby as he stood up, stretching his legs. He yawned, and soon Jack and Brittany did the same, seeming to suddenly realize just how tired they both were as well. It had been a long day.

Jack put out his cigarette in a nearby ashtray, and sat up gently so that Brittany didn't hit the very nearby wall. He shucked his jacket off and hung it over a chair. He his hands through his hair a few times, one of the few things from the past that had survived the years. Then he got up and walked over to his luggage in the corner. He grabbed one bag and unraveled a large sleeping bag. He rolled it out over the carpeted floor, the shiny blue material glowing dully in the light. Brittany pulled the covers back from the bed and crawled into them. Bobby watched all of this with a strange fascination. He watched as his youngest brother and his younger sister both got comfortable in their separate sleeping places and then shook his head.

"Alright, night you two," he said, flicking the light switch as Jack turned the lamp off, "Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite." None of them questioned how odd that sounded, especially coming from Bobby. The rhyme was familiar, like a lot of things that had been heard or seen that day. Their mother had said that to each of them before they went to bed.

"Just like when we were kids," Jack said, barely audible, already half-asleep with his face buried in his pillow, and as she began to succumb to the wonders of slumber, Brittany smiled into the darkness. Everything would be alright. They were together again, and nothing could go wrong. But she wasn't remembering what Bobby had told her back at Jerry's house, before they had all gone inside. _You know why I was late..._ She wouldn't until the day after tomorrow. For now, she let sleep take her, let her dreams take control. 


	3. Still Family

Disclaimer: Yeah, I don't own any of the characters, except Brittany.

Note: Ok, I'm sorry this took me so long to update. Believe it or not I do have a life outside of XD lol I've been busy with schoolwork and the like. Trying to pass this year so I can devote the entire summer to writing, instead of spending half of it making up credits. I'm hoping this chapter will keep you guys satisfied for a while because it might take me a little bit of time to update again. I want to start brainstorming for the two other fanfics that will go with this one. I'm doing a Before fanfic and an After fanfic. I can't really start working on the After until this one is done, but I can work on the Before. So, to my reviewers, please don't hate me, I know it can be frustrating when an author doesn't update quickly. This fanfic will be done, I have all of the chapters named and laid out, so it WILL be done. It just migh take a while. Anyway, really quickly, the italics are Brittany's dream, and the page break in the middle is to separate her memory from the rest of the story. Well, enjoy! Please give me some constructive feedback someone!

* * *

It was nearing two o'clock in the morning when Brittany woke up with a start, her heart pounding painfully in her chest, her brown eyes wide as saucers. She felt incredibly cold, but there were no windows open in the house, and she had been smothered in blankets on the bed. It took her a second to realize that she had been sweating in the night, and the perspiration was cooling off now. She sat up slowly, pulling her knees towards her so that they made a miniature mountain shape with the bed covers. She rested her arms on her knees and rested her head in her shaking hands, breathing deeply. Now that had been one hell of a dream. It had seemed so real. But, then again, most dreams with that magnitude of deep down fright normally do seem very real. She realized she was having a hard time getting her hands to stop shaking. 

_Jefferson Street__ had been covered with snow. Just an entire blanket of white stretching out for several blocks. The sky was such a light shade of grey that it was hard to tell at times where the snow ended and the sky began. Brittany came treading through the iced ground, a single bag of groceries hung in the crook of her arm, and Bobby's tan jack wrapped around her. She had meant to ask before taking it, but she ended up just grabbing it and leaving when he didn't come out of the bathroom quickly enough. The Detroit Tigers cap had reappeared on her head, though the bill was faced forward now to shield her eyes from the winter sun. She had only been gone about ten minutes to get some things that Jeremiah had forgotten to buy for their Thanksgiving dinner. Like a turkey for instance. That had been rather amusing to them all, since that had been the one thing he had told them he was getting. In just a few more minutes she reached the brick house she was sharing with two of her brothers, and Jack. She stepped lightly up the porch steps, shaking snow from her shoes as she went, a habit from her childhood. Both the door to the indoor porch and the front door were kept unlocked during the day when someone was in the house. Humming a random tune, she turned the knob on the front door and stepped inside._

_Brittany stood in the front hall a moment or two, humming an absent tune as she slipped the hat off of her head and set the bag of food on a nearby table. She carefully placed the hat back on her dark hair, the bill now facing backwards again. Slowly her humming tapered as the utter silence in the house caught her attention. She frowned and looked around as best she could as she shook Bobby's jacket off. Something seemed odd, but it didn't strike her right then that something was terribly wrong. She stepped forward to the left, moving in the direction of the living room and the kitchen, not liking the way her footsteps echoed in the house. The living room was empty, though the television was on a channel showing the local news, and that was what first began to send shivers down her spine._

_"Bobby," she called, still not liking the echo effect, "I brought your jacket back safe and sound. Sorry I took it but mine is in the wash." There was no answer, and slowly panic started stealing over her entire body. "Bobby? Angel? Jack?" Still nothing. There was only silence in the house._

_Becoming quite frightened now, Brittany quickened her pace and went into the kitchen, the news anchor's droning, discernible voice following her from the living room's television. There was no one in here either. One of the cupboards hung open, but that was not unusual. The boys were always rummaging through the kitchen for anything they could satiate their appetites until someone decided to cook a meal. A box of cereal also lay on its side on the counter near the sink, a trail of Honey Combs leading from the box to the basin. Brittany was suddenly aware of the fact that her heart was hammering wildly in her chest. That was always a sign that something was wrong. Without pausing to think about it, she darted out of the empty kitchen and up the stairs. Her foot caught on a step halfway up and she went crashing down with a hard thud. There was momentary pain in her thighs as they struck the solid wood, but she barely noticed. She just scrambled back to her feet and climbs the rest of the stairs._

_Looking back on this later, Brittany might have felt guilty by her actions, but at the time she had become too panicked and irrational to think clearly. All she cared about now was finding Jack. She seemed to have momentarily forgotten that she had two other brothers who lived here, and she would always feel ashamed for it. However, right then, shame was beyond her mental grasp. She just dashed down the hall and yanked open the door to the room that she and Jack shared. The bed that she slept in was as she left it that morning, the covers askew and the pillow laying helter-skelter at the head of the bed. The sleeping bag on the floor that was Jack's lay vacant and bare, as though nobody has slept in it since it had come off the assembly. Now a complete slave to terror, Brittany turned around and stared crazily around the upstairs halls._

_"Jack!" she said, now screaming, "Bobby, Angel! Somebody please answer me! Please! Somebody!" She fell to her knees then, horrified tears streaming down her face in glistening trails. She felt her throat close up as a result of her agitation, and her breaths began coming in terrible wheezes. She was having a panic attack in short. She leaned against the wall, feeling her conscious mind begin slipping away from her, her chest heaving up and down with her labored breathing. Her eyes began to close, and her last thought would always cement the shame of it all in her mind._ Please let Jack be okay.

Then she woke up.

Now, sitting there in her bed, almost alarmed at how fresh the dream still was in her mind, Brittany looked to her right, comforted by the sight of the log-like form slumbering comfortably in the sleeping bag that he had purchased while they waited for their bus to arrive at the station in New York. Jack's snores began to put her at ease and she slowly began to relax again. With a final deep breath, Brittany threw the layers of blankets off of her and swung her legs around to the edge of the bed. She stood up to stretch, conscious of the painful knot in her neck. It had been a long time since she had slept in that bed. She kneaded the nape of her neck with her knuckles as she tiptoed lightly out of the room, closing the door quietly behind her.

Once she was outside the room and in the second landing hallway, Brittany didn't take as much care about making sure she walked around quietly. Bobby could sleep through a hurricane if he was ever near one, and she didn't know where Angel was, if he was still out or had come back home. It didn't matter because he was just as heavy a sleeper as Bobby. She stepped slowly down the stairs, her gaze drifting down the wall on her left, looking at all of the pictures that hung there. Here was the same one she had seen at Jeremiah's house, with the six of them all standing outside of the house in the snow, Brittany wearing the Detroit Tigers hat backwards. Here was another of Bobby and Angel wrestling around on the floor of the living when they were teenagers. Then she saw one of Bobby and _her_ wrestling around on the floor of the living room. She appeared to be winning, which made Brittany smile. Those had been the good times, when they all got along and everything was alright. Sure, they had almost more than their share of bad times, but they paled in comparison to the good moments.

When she reached the bottom of the stairs, Brittany was almost frightened to enter the kitchen, the memory of her dream still fresh even though the effect had diminished. However, she assured herself that since she had just left Jack upstairs in the bedroom, that everything was fine. She took a deep breath, held it, and then walked into the kitchen. Nothing was out of place. Not even a cupboard hung open, and she let her breath out in a loud exhale. She began aimlessly rummaging around in the cupboards, feeling that she had to be doing something with her hands. She was getting the distinct desire to chew on her nails, something she hadn't done in a long time. It was not a habit she wanted coming back because whenever she had done it as a teenager, it meant that something bad had...or _would_ happen.

These thoughts were too much for her, and Brittany just tried shoving them away for now. Nothing bad needed to happen right now. All five of them had enough on their plate she thought. She grabbed at the next thing she felt in the cupboard she was searching in and took it to the table with her. It was a bag of Chips Ahoy! cookies. She sat down roughly in a chair and opened the bag, taking out two cookies and shoving one in her mouth. She chewed on it thoughtfully, the crunching sound it made as her teeth mashed it up seeming just as comforting as Jack's snores had been. Slowly, she began forgetting the dream, letting a few last minute memories to trickle back into her present-time mind. Memories that had long been lost in the database that was her brain.

* * *

It was around eight o'clock at night, the day before Thanksgiving. Brittany had been living in the Mercer house for about six months, and she was still shunned in general from the group of brothers. Angel and Jeremiah just casually ignored her, but Bobby took a different route. He was constantly hounding her about one thing or another. If she shut the door too loudly, or didn't pick up her laundry, it was like she had committed a heinous murder. But that was okay with her, it really was, because through all of this, Jack was at least nice to her. They talked sometimes, but their conversations never lasted long until Bobby came to break it up with a string of the usual crap.

"Oh, how cute," he said one time when he had caught the two of them out on the porch, discussing the finer points of hair gel and its uses, "You know, Jersey, you might not want to get to comfortable with the little fairy. I expect him to come out of the closet any day now." Jack never said anything when Bobby and Brittany went at it. He just preferred to sit back and be silent, even when he was inadvertently involved.

"Fuck you, Bobby," Brittany retorted, "And for the last time my name is Brittany, not Jersey." Bobby had given her the loveable nickname the day she had arrived, from New Jersey. How original he had been back then. Bobby smirked at her.

"Aw, what's wrong, Jersey? Don't like your new name?" He was just trying to push her buttons now, and it was working.

In her youth, Brittany had suffered from anger problems, one of the various reasons that she had been bounced from one foster home to another. Before she overcame them at the age of eighteen, it did not take much to light the fire of fury within her. During this particular conversation, that remark had done it. She was up out of her seat in an instant and she slammed her body into Bobby, sending them both to the ground. They tumbled for a minute or two, but Jack had jumped up and gotten Angel. The two pulled the thrashing pair apart before either could do much damage.

The harsh bantering and even harsher rumbles became a pattern between Brittany and Bobby. A pattern that lasted until eight o'clock at night on the day before Brittany's first Thanksgiving since she had arrived. Bobby and Angel had been wrestling around on the ground in front of the television set, Brittany watching them from the couch with something akin to bitterness. She would later describe it as jealousy if anyone ever asked her. There was something different in they were they beat up on each other then the way that she and Bobby did. Though she would have vehemently deny if anyone had asked her then, she wanted desperately to be apart of this family. Jeremiah was doing his homework on the couch, like he always did at night lately, and Mom was sitting in her armchair knitting some scarves for the winter. Only Jack had been missing then. Normally, Mom didn't like any of them out of the house this late at night, but she had needed somebody to walk up to the market to get some yams for tomorrow's feast, and Jack had drawn the short straw. Everything was fairly silent, except for the occasional grunt from the two bozos on the floor. Then Bobby caught Angel a good on in the mouth with his elbow and Angel cried out loudly in pain and surprise.

"Ok, boys, that's enough," their mother said from her chair, not looking up from her knitting, "I want you both to get up and go clean yourselves off." She glanced up. "Angel you're bleeding. Go get the peroxide and clean it out." Both boys got up immediately, panting heavily. Angel held his hand up to his lip, blood seeping through his fingers like water through a strainer. They both nodded and headed off towards the stairs for the bathroom. Mom set her knitting aside and looked up at the clock on the wall.

"Jack should have been back by now," she said with an edge of worry.

"The little fairy's probably just taking his sweet time chatting up the cute clerks down at the store," Bobby said as he ascended the stairs behind Angel. All of the clerks that worked at the closest market, the one on 104th street, were male.

"Bobby, shut up," Brittany had said wearily. Bobby froze on the steps and took a step back towards the couch. He was still had some energy left from wrestling around with Angel.

"Why don't you make me?" he said, challenging her. It had been established on her third day, during Brittany and Bobby's first fight together, that Brittany could hold her own. Since then Bobby had not held back when egging her into a tumble. Now she stood up from the couch, her hands balled into fists. She opened her mouth to retaliate, and then probably throw herself at him again, when the sudden sound of gunfire boomed through the air, sounding dangerously close. All five of them flinched, Brittany and Bobby throwing themselves to the ground. Two more shots went out, and then they heard somebody scream. Both of them were to their feet the next instant.

"Jack!" Bobby called out and ran for the front door.

"Jack!" Brittany mimicked and followed Bobby out of the house. Their mother, Jeremiah, and even Angel yelled after them, but neither seemed to hear them.

These two people, who had both seemed to have built a barrier between each other the moment Brittany stepped into the Mercer household, were now running side-by-side, a common goal in mind. Never had they thought about the one thing they had in common: they both loved Jack, though Brittany didn't realize just how deep her love for the youngest Mercer went until later. They just sprinted towards the sound of the gunshots, both probably thinking the worst. They both saw the dark figure lying in the snow, a grocery bag next to them. Brittany's heart had begun pounding with a mix of fatigue from the running, and utter, engulfing fear.

"Jack!" she had screamed again, and sped past Bobby, reaching the body first. She skidded to a halt, sending up a shower of snow, and dropped to the ground. It was definitely Jack, lying on his stomach in the snow, his face turned to the side away from her. In a second Bobby was beside her. There was no bantering, no flying insults. They were both just completely concerned. The look on Bobby's face was enough to scare Brittany senseless. He looked so weak and distant, as opposed to his normal strong arrogance.

"Jack," he said softly. He reached out and touched Jack's shoulder, something that Brittany had been afraid to do. The minute his fingers touched Jack's coat, Jack jumped and shrieked. He flailed about wildly, causing Brittany to have to lean backwards to avoid being struck by his flying hands and feet. Bobby grabbed on to him, gently, and leaned forward as much as he could.

"Jack, its okay," he said soothingly, "its Bobby and Brittany. It's okay. Whoever hurt you is gone." As Jack slowly calmed down and turned around to face them, it was very evident that he had been hurt. His face was already beginning to bloom with bruises, and his lower lip was swollen and sluggishly oozing blood. He reached out and grabbed Bobby, wrapping his arms around his older brother. Brittany just sat back and watched, feeling completely useless.

"Jack, who did this to you?" Bobby asked, seeming to return to his old self, "Which way did they go?" Jack, who appeared on the verge of tears, let go of Bobby and sat back on the snow. His blue eyes were wide and far away.

"They took the money left over from what Mom gave me and when I tried to run one of them hit me, and then the other one gave it a try. Like it looked like fun and he wanted a shot. Then, I guess, someone poked their head out a window and told them to stop, to leave me alone, and they fired the gun into the air to scare them away." That was enough for Bobby. Jack hadn't even given him even a vague direction in which his attackers had gone, but the oldest Mercer brother was on his feet and walking quickly and threateningly away. The look in Bobby's eye was enough to tell Brittany what he was planning. She hurriedly helped Jack to his feet.

"Jack we're only a block from the house, you think you can make it back there?" she asked him. He nodded his head, the realization of the situation dawning on him. Brittany began jogging after Bobby. Jack grabbed her arm and turned her back around towards him.

" Brittany, they have guns," he told her, still obviously shaken up from his encounter, but apparently determined that she not experience the same thing, "I'm surprised they didn't try shooting me. If you go after them-"

"If I don't go after him they're going to shoot Bobby." They stared at each other hard then, neither of them looking away for what seemed like an hour, but what was really only a few seconds. Then Jack let his hand slip off of her arm, and she turned around and took off after Bobby again. Jack watched her go a moment longer, and then ran towards the house, shouting for Angel and Jeremiah.

Bobby had already gotten a head start on the chase, but as much as Brittany was afraid for him, she knew he wasn't as stupid as he looked. He wouldn't go running into things when he knew they were armed. She raced carefully in the direction he had gone, keeping her eyes and her ears open. It was night time in Detroit during the winter. For a long time all she could see was darkness and snow, and then, barely silhouetted in the shadows, she saw the continually moving outline of the hotheaded Mercer. She sped up, closing the distance between her and him.

"Bobby," she called out when she was close enough not to have to yell, "Bobby, come on, just stop."

"Go back to the house, Brittany," replied Bobby, not stopping or looking back at her. Brittany kept pace with him.

"You're going to get yourself shot, Bobby. I'm not leaving unless you come with me." This time, he actually glanced back at her, but he never stopped moving. He was on a mission. Brittany didn't need to be a part of the family to know that.

"Why?" Bobby asked, still keeping a steady pace.

"Why what?" Brittany asked him in return, managing to keep up so they were side-by-side again.

"Why are you trying to protect me?" Stopping now, Brittany stared at his back a moment, her face almost blank.

"Because we're family, Bobby." For years to come, Brittany would never completely understand what made her say that. She would realize much later, that she had said it because it had been the truth. They _were_ family, even if they didn't get along a lot of the time. The moment she had been dropped off at the Mercer house six months before, they had been meant to be a family.

Bobby finally stopped and turned around to look at her, an almost shocked look on his face, like he couldn't believe what he had heard, but yet a part of him did. Brittany gazed back at him, and for an entire minute or so, they just stared at each other. Then Bobby grinned that big goofy grin of his. The grin that tells the world that he may be a hardass but there is another layer beneath the Bobby Mercer that everyone else saw. It was the grin that only family knew. Brittany smiled back at him, and just like that, their bond was created, the yank was made. Never would that bond be broken. As this moment in Mercer history drew to a close, something moved in Brittany's peripheral vision. Her brown eyes went wide and she gasped. The grin slid off Bobby's face, but as he was about to turn and look at what it was, Brittany threw herself towards him and dragged him to the ground. Just a split second later, there was the crack of a gun being fired several times, and the bullets whizzed right over them.

"Motherfuckers," Bobby cursed under his breath as the two of them huddled together in the snow. Suddenly, more gunshots were fired from the opposite direction followed by Angel's loud, slightly obnoxious voice.

"Whoo!" he yelled out as he went running towards Brittany and Bobby, "Yeah, you better run, you assholes!" Carefully, Bobby and Brittany raised their heads up and saw Angel stop beside them. They pushed themselves up off the ground and sat up in the ice-covered street.

"You two alright?" Angel asked them, looking down. They both nodded.

"Are they gone?" Bobby asked, and Brittany practically sighed with relief when she saw Angel nod, "Is Jackie okay?"

"Yeah, he made it back to the house," Angel told them, "Mom and Jeremiah are treating his scrapes and bruises. He told me to come after you guys, and too make sure I brought my baby with me." All three of them broke into smiles and slowly laughter bubbled out of them. Bobby and Brittany clung to each other as they howled with laughter, Angel looming above them with not much more control over himself. After a minute or two they got up and walked back home, all of them grinning and content.

* * *

Now almost six years to the day since that memorable night, Brittany began nibbling on her second chocolate chip cookie as she sat in the kitchen of her childhood, the residue of that old memory lingering even after it was done retelling its tale. That had been one of the best moments of her life, hands down. Every day after that night had been bliss. The bantering and the wrestling around had, of course, continued, but they were no longer done with a vicious intent on either side. Bobby and Brittany acted like brother and sister after that night before Thanksgiving Day. It had not been long after that night, a couple of months maybe, that her mother had first proposed the idea of adoption into the Mercer family to Brittany. The thought of having a family, a last name, had practically knocked her off of her feet and had almost been beyond her comprehension. At first she could not imagine saying anything but yes. In the end she said no. Why?

"Because things change," she murmured absently into the silent shadows of the kitchen. She pushed the rest of the cookie into her mouth and chewed in pensive thought.

Two gunshots cracked through the night, obscured by the winter wind outside, and only seconds apart. Brittany sat up straight in a flash, swallowing her mouthful of Chips Ahoy! The location of the sound was hard to pinpoint, but as another shot rang through her ears, she began to hear voices as well, also hard to locate, but seeming to grow closer. One of the voices Brittany recognized one of them she didn't. She sighed. Apparently, Angel really had gone to go see that girl. What had her name been? Sonya, Shari? It was something like that anyway. Brittany stood up from her chair and stretched her arms lazily, and then she turned and headed for the back door. She was almost positive that the gunfire she had heard had something to do with her brother and his old girlfriend.

Sure enough, just a few seconds after taking her position to the left of the door, it banged open and two figures flew past her into the house. Neither of them were as clothed as Brittany would have liked. She watched them sprint into the living room and huddle behind the couch, out of sight. At first, this almost puzzled her, but then she heard the sounds of the trash cans that were behind the house crash to the ground like bowling pins, and remembered the gunshots. She turned around in time to see a hulk of a man charging forward towards the house. Without really thinking about the potential consequences of her next action, she placed herself in the doorway like a blockade in an attempt to stop the intimidatingly large black man from barging into her mother's house at full speed. He saw her standing there and managed to screech to a halt in his fury right before he rammed into Brittany. The man towered over her, and was armed, but she glared up at him just the same.

"Hey," she shouted up at him angrily, "You can't just come running in here. This isn't your house. I should call the cops right now." The threat had no effect on him. The guy looked seriously infuriated, and Brittany momentarily wondered how Angel always managed to get himself into trouble so quickly. Over a girl no less.

"Where is he?" the man snarled, brandishing his firearm at her, his eyes wild with hatred, "I know he's in here. I saw him run in here. I'm going to kill the motherfucker. He's got my girl." He tried pushing his way past Brittany, but he didn't try very hard, probably because he thought she would be easy to shove aside, and she easily pushed him back outside. He stared down at her, his eyes wide with a mix of anger and surprise.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she told him, trying to keep her voice under control. She had guts, but the guy did have a gun. "The only people here are me and my brothers, whom I'm sure would be more than willing to come down here and discuss the consequences of illegally entering this house." Brittany, of course, had no idea whether the guy was doing anything seriously illegal or not. He had not actually entered the house as of yet, and since this was Detroit, standing on someone's back porch holding a gun was not exactly going to send you to jail.

"He's in there, I know he is." The guy was like a predator, looking into the house with searching eyes. Brittany could have sworn he even sniffed the air a few times. She was growing more uncomfortable by the minute. However, she kept her composure, trying to show no cowardice whatsoever.

"Do you have any idea whose house you're trying to barge into?" The man didn't really reply, but she hadn't expected to him say yes or no. "This is the Mercer household." That got his attention. He looked down at her, his face still livid and crazed. "Yeah, that's right tough guy, the Mercer household, and I'm sure that if you don't leave right now I could get my brother Bobby down here and he would more than happy to settle this with you outside." Bobby had been gone a long time, but his name was one that the longtime inhabitants of the city would not forget easily.

The man just stood there for what seemed like a long time, staring at Brittany like he didn't know exactly what he was doing, breathing heavily. She was sure that he would scream one last thing, kick the house maybe, or perhaps he really would make her go and get Bobby. In the end, his body just went slack, the arm holding the gun hanging by his side, and he turned around and walked back into the night, not saying a word. She watched him go, trying to hold everything in until he was out of sight. Finally, she could no longer see him and she quickly shut the door, leaning against it, and letting out the biggest sigh of relief known to man. Her hands were shaking again. She flexed her fingers, shook them about, trying to get her nerves under control. It took a few minutes, but she was finally able to step away from the door and walk into the living room. She walked over to couch and peered behind it.

"Oh, gross," she groaned and turned away in disgust. Angel and Sofi seemed to have forgotten about the large man that had been chasing them and appeared to be glued together at the face. Both of them jumped at her voice. Angel looked somewhat ashamed when he saw his little sister, Sofi looked indifferent.

"Is he gone?" Angel asked Brittany as she turned back around. Brittany nodded, staring at her brother with a 'What were you thinking?' look. He grinned sheepishly, seeming to shrug with his eyes. Brittany shook her head and then turned to head for the stairs.

"I'm going back to bed," she said simply, walking the stairs in exhaustion. It had officially been a long night.

"Hey, Brittany," her older brother called to her as she began walking upstairs. Brittany looked over her shoulder at him. "Thanks, you know, for getting the guy to beat it. You didn't have to do that." She stopped and looked over at him, sitting there on the floor next to Sofi who, Brittany assumed, was now _Angel's_ girlfriend. The look in her eyes was almost equal to how she had been looking at Bobby that night that their bond had been forged.

"Yes I did, Angel. We're still family, right?" Angel stared back at her, his expression very similar to what Bobby's had been on that same night. He nodded, and she smiled. She walked the rest of the way up the stairs, leaving Angel and Sofi downstairs to do what they pleased. When she reached the second landing, Bobby stuck his head out of his room, which was actually their mother's room, his eyes droopy.

"What's going on?" he asked Brittany groggily through a large yawn, "What was all that noise downstairs?"

"Nothing, Bobby," she told him, "Go back to sleep." Bobby didn't need telling twice. He disappeared back into his room. Brittany smiled softly as he went, and then opened to door to her own room, ready to go back to bed. For now, she had completely forgotten about her dream.

When she walked back into the bedroom, she stopped in her tracks as she shut the door behind her. Jack had vacated the sleeping bag and was sitting on the bed again, his back leaning against the wall at the head of the bed. He didn't look up when Brittany entered. He was busy examining his hands with a forlorn fascination. Without even asking she knew what he was looking at, and her heart was suddenly gripped with an icy sadness. She was at a loss for words. She just drifted over to the bed, feeling as though her feet were not touching the ground. She crawled up next to him, which was hard because of how small the bed was. She scrunched up beside him and rested her cheek on his shoulder, still not knowing what to say, or if there was even anything she could say.

"You know, I almost forgot these were here," Jack said abruptly, talking about the knotted, gnarled scars on both of his hands, "Can you believe that? I don't know how I could have forgotten. I guess, maybe, I've been a different person then I was when I was growing up here, fully aware of the scars. No wonder I never came back to visit Mom. I didn't want to remember. I'm a horrible person." Brittany lifted her head suddenly, staring at Jack with disbelief.

"Jack, how could you think that?" she asked him, perhaps a little more harshly than she had meant it as. He wouldn't meet her gaze. "Jack neither of us came back because we were busy. If you want to blame yourself for not coming back, then I guess I should blame myself, too." Jack stood up then, so quickly that, since she was still half-leaning on him, Brittany fell forward onto her pillows. He ran both of his hands through his hair in distress, awkwardly pacing around the room.

"You would have come back if it hadn't been for me," he said to her, still not looking her in the eyes, "If it hadn't been for my selfishness, you would have come home." Now it was Brittany's turn to stand up, and she felt more frightened than she had felt in a long time. This was not the Jack she had become accustomed to for the past three years. This was the Jack that she had grown up with from the age of fifteen to the age of eighteen. She grabbed Jack by the shoulders, something she had not done in a long time, and held him firmly in front of her.

"Jack," said Brittany, just as firmly as she was holding him, "You are not selfish. Look at me." He did look at her. He had always ended up looking at her. "You're not selfish for wanted to escape from the memories of your past. How do you know that wasn't what I was doing when I went with you? Sure, I wanted to be with you, but maybe there was another reason. You can't blame yourself for not coming back, just like I can't blame myself, and Bobby and Angel can't blame themselves either. If one of us blames ourselves, then we're all to blame, because we're still a family. But none of us can be to blame for wanting to escape. We all love, Mom, but even love can't always win over memories." Brittany was aware that there were tears running down her cheeks, and after a few seconds, she realized that there were also tears on Jack's face. They hugged each other then, fiercely with what little emotional strength they still possessed.

When their arms weakened from the embrace, they let go of each other, and wordlessly began stripping the blankets from the bed and spreading them on the floor. They completely unzipped the sleeping bag and then laid down next to each, throwing the insulating cover over them. They nestled next to each other, Jack slipping an arm between her arm and side, tightening it comfortably around her. One of their brothers would probably see them still sleeping like this in the morning, make the obvious assumption, and give them crap about it all day, but that was not a thought that bothered them right now. After all that had happened in the last few days, all they wanted was to feel the comfortable feeling of being next to each other. They both feel into a peaceful slumber, and this time Brittany was not awakened by any dreams.


	4. Past begets Present

Disclaimer: Yeah, I don't own any of the characters except Brittany.

Note: Another fairly long chapter for me. I know I said it might be a little while before I updated, but my other fanfic is coming along slower than I would like. I also really needed to get the material for this chapter out of my head. I really wanted to write a chapter showing the relationship between Brittany and Bobby, that strong bond that has different properties as opposed to the bond between the brothers themselves. I didn't want this to be just about Brittany and Jack. I wanted this to be about their family. I know that I have a couple of events jumbled around, but I may do that from time to time if it is convenient to me as a writer. I'm hoping to get this story completed soon so I can get to work on the two stories that will go along with this one. Hope you enjoy this fourth chapter!

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**Chapter Four: Past begets Present**

"I specifically told you guys not to do anything nasty last night."

Brittany had tried to ignore Bobby, but that was what the fourth, maybe even fifth time he had been so kind as too remind her of the promise that had been made last night when they arrived at the house. It was around eleven o'clock in the morning now, and Brittany was standing at the kitchen sink, gutting the turkey that she had had to buy almost as soon as she had woken up this morning. She made no connection with her dream last night. All she was thinking about was how gross the raw turkey was, and how badly she wanted to bust Bobby a good one in the mouth. She let go of the turkey leg she had been holding onto, the turkey falling into the basin with a wet thud, and she turned her head in her older brother's direction angrily.

"Bobby, I swear, if you say that one more time," she growled threateningly at him through gritted teeth. To make her point she balled one of her hands into a fist while she stared at him, and brought the clenched hand down hard on the counter. There was momentary pain, but this was nothing Brittany had never done before. Bobby just grinned back at her sweetly from his spot on the couch. He was just trying to push her buttons, and she knew that, but her nerves were still not the same from the events of the early morning.

As predicted, Brittany and Jack had been woken up by the familiar sound of their big brother's booming shout. His first words had been something along the lines of 'I can't believe you two' and then the rest of the remarks had followed after the accused had gotten up and through their normal routine. Brittany let Jack take his shower while she remade the bed; replacing the covers they had removed last night. She zipped Jack's sleeping bag back up, trying to blink her grogginess away, listening to the water running in the bathroom down the hall. She showered after Jack and by the time she had thoroughly washed, dried, and dressed herself, he was done getting his hair to do exactly what he wanted it to do. It still looked like he stuck his finger in an electric socket. Brittany just quickly brushed out her think brown hair. It was a good system. One that had worked since before they had left home. One that would work until one of them died.

Before they had even reached the bottom of the stairs, Brittany and Jack were bombarded by another volley of jeers from the loveable hothead that was their brother, Bobby. They both just yawned and did their best to ignore him. Even Brittany was still too tired to retaliate. In another hour that would change, but for now she just walked through the living room, where Bobby was spread out on the couch, and into the kitchen to pour herself a bowl of cereal. As she spooned a mouthful of Honeycombs into her mouth, she watched Jack flop into an armchair next to the couch, trying to wipe the sleep from his blue eyes. The sight of his boyish face made her smile, and if Bobby had just let up then, Brittany would have been fine for the rest of the day. But, Bobby would not, maybe could not, let up. He continued to hassle her about what she and Jack didn't do for the rest of the morning, and she finally cracked.

"Come on now, Brittany," Bobby said soothingly, watching as Brittany stuffed and seasoned the turkey, getting it ready for the oven, "Under normal circumstances you know I would be completely ignorant about this. What do I care whether you two screw each other or not? But I mean the least you could have done was lay off each other for just one night like I asked you to." Brittany, who was trying so very hard to block out her brother's voice, was practically stuffing the turkey to pieces, the force behind her hands being fed by anger.

"Bobby, just leave her the hell alone," said Jack, looking over at Bobby from where he stood grating carrots and cutting tomatoes for the salad. He tried to sound stern, but just looking at Bobby brought back that old hero-worship, and he just silently went back to his task. Not that Brittany noticed.

"Ah, isn't that cute," Bobby said mockingly, "You know Brittany I think it's real sweet how you got the little fairy over here fighting your battles for you. You know maybe you can-" He was cut off in mid-sentence as Brittany's fist exploded across his jaw. She stared at him with a fiery fury and then stomped out of the kitchen, her chest heaving in painful thrusts.

"Jack," she called behind her, shoving her arms through the sleeves of her grey jacket, "Put the turkey in the oven, and make sure there's room for the yams." Without another word, Brittany ripped open the front door and flew down the steps. She didn't know where she was going, but she just let her feet take her where they wanted to go. It had worked in the past, and she hoped to God that it worked now.

Brittany could feel her heart beating a mile a minute as she walked. She kept flexing the fingers of the hand that she had struck Bobby with. It ached horribly. Bobby had always had an unusually hard head. Oh no, Bobby. She hadn't even stayed long enough to see whether she had at least done any damage or not. She had just left. She paused on the snow-covered sidewalk almost making the decision to go back. Almost. She continued on her way, shoving her hands deep into the pockets of her coat. She still didn't know where she was going, but something told her she needed to keep walking. Something told her she needed to get away from the house, if only for a few minutes. She felt like she was drowning, but not in water. She was drowning in memories.

Ever since the night before, when Brittany had had been sitting in the kitchen and took that first step down Memory Lane, it was like everything she had ever remembered between the time she had arrived at the Mercer homestead at the age of fifteen till she left at the age of nineteen had come out of the vaults vying for first position in her mind. It wasn't all bad, but she felt suffocated and stretched. All those memories being crammed into the foreground of her mind at once was both painful and pleasurable at the same time. She had not thought about half of the things she was remembering for a long time, almost like they had never happened. She knew what was going on, why this was happening, but it didn't make her feel any better about it.

She had told the guys yesterday when they had arrived at Mom's house that they were all falling back into the pattern of their youth, and Brittany was not excluded from that. She had to fall back into position too. To do that, she had to remember what her position had been. She had not been the little girl in the corner who got scared every time a big, scary man came to the door ready to tear one of her brothers limb-from-limb. She had been one of guys, who got up in that big, scary man's face and told him to piss off. Like it or not, she was becoming that person again. Punching Bobby, running out of the house to walk aimlessly around the city until she cooled off, these had been things she had done when she was younger, when she had almost been a Mercer. She knew she had to make the change, because everyone else was. But that didn't make it any less frightening.

"Excuse me, miss," a voice said behind her. A jolt of surprise went through Brittany's body, and she realized for the first time that she was sitting down. She had walked three blocks to the park down the street from the house, and was now half-leaning, half-sitting on the dome-shaped jungle gym. She turned her head in the direction of the voice.

"Excuse me, miss," Bobby repeated, "I'm looking for my sister. You haven't seen her pass by have you?"

"About this tall?" Brittany asked, trying to sound helpful, and holding her hand at exactly her own height, "Brown hair, brown eyes, and probably going to be sporting one hell of a bruise on her right hand tonight?" Bobby smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, that would be her." Brittany shrugged and turned her face away from him.

"Sorry, haven't seen her." She heard Bobby sigh, and felt him take a spot next to her on the jungle gym. Neither of them said anything for a long time. They were both so stubborn. Finally, Brittany let out a sigh of her own.

"How's your face?" she asked him blankly, still not looking in his direction.

"I'll survive," he replied, and Brittany guessed that he was probably smiling, "Now are you going to tell me what's going on?"

"Nothing is going on. You just got on my nerves."

"Bullshit, Brittany. I've gotten on your nerves plenty of times before and you have never hit me. You've kicked me, slapped me, hell you even bit me once, but you've never balled a fist and popped me one across the mouth. Now tell me what's wrong or I'm going to be forced to get rough with you." Brittany scowled heavily, her fist having been slowly balling into fists in her pockets. Bobby thought that by gently egging her on that he would get her to say something. Well, he was at least going to get her to _do_ something. She stood up from the jungle gym and gave him a hard shove.

"Come on then, Bobby," she challenged him, standing firmly in front of him, "Get rough with me then!" Bobby stared at her inscrutably, and she stared back at him. This staring contest lasted a minute or two, until Bobby sighed and shook his head. Brittany let her hands fall to her sides.

"That's what I thought. Same old Bobby Mercer. All talk and no-" They were both on the ground in a second as Bobby plowed into her.

It was mostly a battle of endurance now. There wasn't a whole lot of skill involved in this particular match. Both of them kicked around trying to get on top of the other. A mother and her child passed by while they were still tumbling in the snow, emitting a grunt every now and again, and hurried up her pace to get past them. Brittany gasped for breath as Bobby got her in a headlock. She struck his ribs with her elbow, and felt him let go with a muffled shout. She scrambled up to her knees and rammed her shoulder into her brother's chest. This sent him skidding a few inches, but it threw her off balance and she tumbled backwards. It wasn't long before Bobby was on top of her, pinning her arms behind her, one of his knees digging into the small of her back.

"Ok, Brittany," he said, panting slightly, "Now you're going to tell me what's been eating you since we got here, or you going to be eating snow for dinner instead of that wonderful turkey you slaved over for hours." He released some of his pressure and rolled her over on her back, so they could look at each other. Brittany knew there was now winning against him now. She sighed again, and stared up into the clouds.

"You know," she began, "last night I was sitting in the kitchen, just thinking. Do you know what I was thinking about?" Bobby let up completely, leaning back off of her so that they were both sitting up in the snow in front of one another. He shook his head. She continued

"I was thinking about that night before my first Thanksgiving here. You remember? It had been late at night, and Jack was out getting some sweet potatoes for dinner the next day." Bobby was nodding now.

"Yeah, I remember," he said, "You and I were about to get in one mother of a fight, but we heard gunshots outside. We heard Jack shout and both took off out the door." He paused, and Brittany could see the memory come full circle in his mind. "After we found Jack I went after the guys who mugged him. You tried stopping me, and when I asked you why you said..."

"Because we're family," they both said together. Bobby nodded some more, and Brittany smiled softly.

"Last night when Angel came running through the back door with that girl," she started telling him, and then paused as she watched Bobby's brows furrow with confusion, "Long story. Anyway, they were followed closely by who I assumed was Sofi's loveable boyfriend. He had a gun, and looked like he would kill the first guy he got his hands on. I got him to go away while Angel and La Vida Loca hid in the living room." Brittany shook her head as she remembered in great detail what had happened in the early morning with her brother and his new girlfriend. Bobby, for once, was being quiet. She took advantage of that.

"I tell you, Bobby, I never felt so scared in my life. I don't remember feeling that scared. I mean, yeah, the guy was armed and crazy about the fact that someone just stole his girl, but if I had a nickel for every guy like that I've faced in my life, Jack and I wouldn't be living on the damned tour bus. We've only been gone a couple of years, yet I lost all of my presence in this city. I used to be tough, like one of the guys. In fact, after a while you guys actually referred to me as a guy a lot of the time. I didn't realize I had lost my old vigor until last night. Now, I'm being shoved back into the position of the tough sister. We're all being shoved back into your old positions. I don't know why, though I could guess..." She trailed off now, feeling she had said enough. Bobby had never been a real sentimental guy. He would probably just shrug his shoulders and they would both head back to the house. He did continue sitting there for a while, in silence.

"You and Jack have been living on a tour bus?" he finally asked. Brittany stared at him, having not expected that, and then she began laughing, long and hard. Bobby gazed at her, eyebrows raised, but then soon joined her, his laugh deep and throaty.

"Yeah, Bobby, we've been living on the tour bus," she told him, her laughter subsiding to random giggles, "It's not all bad. It has a refrigerator anyway." She stood up, feeling the mild stiffness in her legs from sitting on them for the past couple of minutes. She brushed the snow off of her pants. She held out a hand to Bobby, but he ignored it and pushed himself up.

"Well, I'm glad we could have this little heart-to-heart discussion," he said with mock sentimentality. Brittany smiled and rolled her eyes. Bobby grinned and hooked an arm around her neck, ruffling her long, thick hair with a gloved hand. They walked back to the house. Jack had taken control of the cooking, with a little help from Jerry, so Brittany was off the hook for a while. When she and Bobby walked through the front door, Jack poked his head out of the kitchen. He looked relieved when he saw Brittany.

"Yeah, he reamed me a good one when you stormed out," Bobby murmured in Brittany's ear, "A whole lot of 'You're a complete asshole' and stuff like that. I can tell you it shocked me to see little Jackie yell like that." Brittany smiled happily and shook her jacket off. She hung it up in the rack in the small foyer. She walked to the kitchen, while Bobby trotted upstairs, probably to go see just what exactly was going on with Angel. She entered the boiling hot kitchen, and stood on her tiptoes so she could place a kiss on Jack's cheek. He looked away cranberry sauce he was spooning out of a can, and looked down at Brittany with please surprise.

"What was that for?" he asked.

"For calling Bobby an asshole," she told him simply, smiling with adoration. He smiled back, and then returned to his cranberry sauce. Escaping from the heat, Brittany walked back into the living room and fell heavily onto the couch. She hadn't realized how exhausted she was. It wasn't long after she hit the cushions that the yelling began upstairs.

"What the hell are you thinking bringing Loco Ono to the house?" Bobby screamed, "You know you could have gotten our little sister killed."

"What was I supposed to do Bobby?" Angel shouted back, "Would you have preferred me to stay outside and get my ass shot?"

"If it meant you didn't have to bring La Vida Loca home then yes I would have preferred you do that." In the background there was the shrill shrieking of Sofi with her little Spanish accent. Brittany closed her eyes in content. Oh, it was good to be home at last

Thanksgiving dinner was short and not entirely pleasant. The Mercer family gathered around the small dining table that was laden down with food of every kind. They had linked hands to form a circle, and Bobby said a little thank you to God for bringing them together and all that good stuff. Afterwards, they had all sat down and begun to eat. It was more than a meal to all of them, Brittany was sure of that. She was sure she was not the only person who witnessed something at the dinner table. She was sure that Jeremiah, Angel, and Jack saw what she saw, even if it was a different version of it. Bobby, she was not so sure about. He was so hard to read, but something inside, something deep inside, told her that he had not seen anything. Later on, after everything that was going to happen was done, it would make sense to her.

Brittany was shoveling a forkful of green bean casserole into her mouth when her mother spoke to her. Her mother as she remembered her being on the day Brittany and Jack left home. She was as beautiful as ever, and her face was still so gentle. It was all Brittany could do not to cry out in anguish. She locked eyes with her mother, Evelyn Mercer. Her mother smiled at her, that smile that could heal anything, make any wound better.

" Brittany," her mother said in her soothing, melodic voice, "You don't have to be adopted to belong to a family. You will be a part of this family forever. Promise me you'll take care of Jackie. I worry about him, but as long as he has you I won't worry too much." Then she was gone, and the chair at the head of the table was empty once more. Brittany stared at that vacant space a moment longer and then returned to her food, not really interested in eating anything anymore. Bobby took care of that problem. Just three minutes into the meal, he stood up, wiping food from his mouth with a towel and then throwing it back on the table.

"To hell with this, man," he said to them, "Let's go get a pick-up game. I want to see some quick sticks and some tight passing." Hockey. Now that was a blissful thought. Brittany smiled and pushed her own chair away from the table.

"It's too cold, man," complained Angel, "I didn't come all the way out here to play no hockey." Brittany shook her head at her brother and stood up, nodding to Bobby.

"I'm game, Bobby," she said, pushing her chair back into the table and heading to go get her jacket. He smiled at her and gestured his hand at her.

"That's the spirit, little sister," Bobby said, following her into the entrance hall where all of their coats were hung in a neat row, "Come on, ladies, let's show these guys some fucking skills!" The two of them got ready to go, grabbing their gear from the closet in the downstairs hallway. After a few seconds, the other three Mercers joined them.

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The game had been almost as short as dinner. There had been a group of guys down at the rink, playing an amateur game of three-on-three. When Brittany and her brothers showed, Bobby had immediately heckled the other guys into a game, and soon everyone was on the ice, checking each other left and right. Brittany had taken her place between the goal posts, her facemask and pads on. It had been her position as a teenager, and she played it well. Nothing got past her. Except Bobby's slap shot, but they were on the same team today, so that didn't matter. However, she had copped out early, skating quickly and deftly out of the fenced in ice and was quietly sick. She had pulled her left glove off and wiped her hand across her mouth. Her brothers had asked her if she was okay, and she said she was. She blamed Jack's canned cranberry sauce, and that seemed to satisfy them enough to keep on playing without her.

"You sure you're okay, little B?" Bobby asked her when they returned home. The nickname caused her to laugh as she collapsed onto the couch for the second time that day. She smiled over at her big brother.

"I'm fine Bobby," she replied honestly, "I just got a little sick is all. Skating directly after eating was apparently not a smart move for me today. That's all." Bobby shrugged to show that he would believe her for now, and proceeded to stick handling their puck from the game on the floor of the living room. Brittany let out a let sigh and closed her eyes. She almost dozed off, and she would have if it hadn't been for Sofi.

"Baby, where have you been?" she asked Angel, her voice a high-pitched whine. Brittany opened one eye and watched Angel walk to the stairwell where Sofi stood.

"I was just out playing some hockey, baby," he told her, "I told you I'd be back soon."

"I'm hungry; you let me sleep through dinner." Brittany could have burst out laughing if it hadn't been for Bobby butting in right then.

"You'd just throw it back up anyway," he said without looking up from his puck and hockey stick. Sofi made some kind of angry, catlike noise at him. "Yeah, see? You've even got the vomiting sound down."

"Fuck you, Bobby!" she screamed at him. Bobby stopped then, and stood up straight, staring at Sofi dangerously.

"Man, that's it Angel," he shouted at his brother, "I don't care how much trouble you went through to get her, Loco Ono is not staying in this house one more night. This is not a homeless shelter!"

"Oh, so what, you the boss now?" Angel retorted angrily. Jack and Jeremiah cackled in the background.

Brittany smiled softly to herself, closing her eyes again as the fight raged not even three feet away from her spot on the couch. Everything was alright. They were all back where they needed to be. Brittany was back to being the tough girl of the family, and Bobby was still his hotheaded self. All was right in the land of the Mercers. Tomorrow they were going to see their mother's lawyer to go over her Last Will and Testament. For now, Brittany slowly dozed off, soothed by the sultry sounds of her brothers arguing in the background.


	5. First Witness

Disclaimer: Nope, I don't own anything from the Four Brothers. I only claim Brittany, but that doesn't matter much P

Note: Alright, I know I've been bad about updating, but I have school and stuff to think about. Not to mention I have a seriously thin attention span. Its a wonder I want to become a writer at all. I would like to thank **TvLuVa** for caring enough for the story that she messaged me asking if I was going to update. I have a policy that if I have at least one fan, I will keep writing. So thank you VERY much, and I know I've told you that before ;) On another note, I apologize to all if this chapter seems rushed, I just want to get this fic done so I can do the other two. Some of the dialogue got messed up, but I improv-ed as best I could, and I think it turned out all right. If there are any typos my spellcheck didn't pick up I also apologize. I'm too tired this time to read over it myself. I hope you like this chapter!

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**Chapter Five: First Witness**

It was almost noon and they still weren't ready. Five people with just one bathroom was not a good arrangement. Technically, it was just four, since Jeremiah would be getting ready at his own house and was going to pick them up to take them to the lawyer guy's office. Brittany stood in the upstairs hallways, pacing back and forth outside the shut bathroom door, nervously checking her wristwatch every few seconds, and listening to the sound of the shower running. The shower had been running for a full forty-five minutes. None of them had bothered to turn it off when they were done, because the next person just kind of hopped in as they came out, and by the sound of Angel's grunts, the water was pretty cold by now. Jack was probably still standing at the mirror, fixing his hair, and Brittany was growing impatient. All she needed to do was brush through her hair. With an exasperated sigh, she stopped her pacing and headed for the room at the end of the hall. 

"Bobby!" she yelled as she banged on the door, "Come on, Bobby, open up!" There was the sound of shuffling feet, a thud, and a muffled cry of pain. Bobby opened the door, pulling a grey sweatshirt over his head and gently rubbing a spot near his temple. Brittany momentarily forgot her urgent task, and looked at him curiously.

"What did you do?" she asked. Bobby looked at her, still massaging his head.

"Hit my head on the side table," he explained without caring, "What do want?"

"I need to use the big mirror on the dresser in there." Bobby had continued sleeping in their mother's room after that first night when he had slept downstairs. Brittany, as well as the other Mercer brothers, had decided not to ask him about it. Bobby frowned at her.

"What's wrong with the one in the bathroom?" he inquired. Brittany sighed.

"Jack's still fixing his hair," she said, knowing that wouldn't explain it all, "And Angel is still in the shower." She inwardly groaned as her brother smirked heavily at her.

"Ah, come on, Brittany," Bobby said sweetly, "You've seen us all naked at least once." It was true. She had.

"Yes," Brittany replied, "But I was not an experience I'm keen to relive."

"Aw, be sure to break that to Jackie gently." She nearly pounced on him, ready to rumble, when she realized that she could no longer hear the shower running. She went 'Ha!' in triumph and ran back down the hall, leaving Bobby in the doorway of their mother's room staring after her with amusement.

"Ok, Jack," shouted Brittany as she found herself still blocked from the bathroom by the closed door, "Angel's out of the shower now. You've had enough time to fix your hair, now let me in!" She banged on the door with her a fist a few times to emphasize.

"Hold on," called Jack's voice from the other side of the door, "I'm almost done." Brittany renewed the force of her pounding and opened her mouth in readiness to say something more, when something tall and dark walked into her peripheral vision. Something entirely dark.

"Holy crap!" she cried out in surprise and mild disgust, throwing up and arm to hide her view as she turned her head to the side, "Damn it, Angel! Put some fucking clothes on!" Angel didn't really acknowledge her right away, but just stood there in all his naked glory.

"Sofi is getting dressed in the room," he said distractedly after several long moments.

"So what?" Brittany asked loudly, "It's not like you two haven't seen each other without clothes before." Before Angel had the time to answer, if he was even going to, the bathroom door opened to her right and Jack stepped out. He looked temporarily confused at the sight of Brittany with her arms thrown over her head, and then looked to the left.

"Shit!" he shouted in much the same way as Brittany had, throwing his own arms up, "Angel, what the hell do you think you're doing, man?" Brittany didn't stick around to hear the rest of the conversation; she just darted into the bathroom and shut the door behind her.

Jerry, always punctual, arrived at exactly twelve in the afternoon and opened to front door on chaos. Bobby and Angel were, as usual, wrestling on the floor of the living room. Brittany was standing on a chair, the only way she could match Jack's height, trying to plaster the rock star's spiky hair down with a comb and water. When Jerry cleared his throat, Brittany looked away from her task and Jack took the opportunity to dart from her grasp and away from the dreaded comb. Almost instantaneously, Bobby disentangled himself from Angel and jumped up to grab his littlest brother.

"Don't mess up his hair!" Brittany squealed as she jumped down from the chair.

Finally, everyone was ready to leave. They had all gone to the bathroom twice, had a light snack, and Brittany had re-fixed Jack's hair. They all left the house single file, with Brittany bringing up the rear. She had run upstairs and grabbed something from Bobby's room. She dashed back downstairs as said brother poked his head back into the house.

"Hey, Bobby, can I borrow your Redwings sweatshirt?" she asked as she was shoving the sweatshirt over her head. She pulled it down, looking almost comical in its enveloping size.

"What's wrong with your grey one?" Bobby asked quizzically.

"It's dirty." He shrugged.

"Whatever just don't get it dirty." Brittany nodded and walked out of the house after her brother, locking the door behind her.

In the car, the usual bickering resumed as Jerry drove them past snow-covered streets and decrepit buildings. Bobby, who always had to be pestering someone, busied himself in the passenger seat by trying to heckle Jeremiah into letting him drive the car. Thankfully for the others in the backseats, Jerry has a higher tolerance for Bobby's antics than the rest of them.

"Come on, Jerry," Bobby almost pleaded, "It ain't like you don't have insurance on this thing."

"Bobby," Jeremiah replied calmly, "When are going to learn that insurance is not an invitation to destroy something?"

"Never," Bobby mumbled under his breath, realizing he wasn't going to get through his brother's barrier. He folded his arms in a childlike fashion, defeated, but with Bobby there was never any rest period. Brittany watched him glance behind him at the five backseats where she, Jack, and Angel were sitting. She felt his eyes searching his siblings with an almost predatory focus. She silently preyed that he didn't sink his teeth into her, or Jack for that matter. He didn't, and the only left one option.

"Angel, I should kick your ass right now, man," exclaimed Bobby. Angel jerked in his seat like he got slapped in the face and looked at Bobby in confusion.

"What did I do?" he asked, holding his hands up like he was surrendering.

"What the hell were you thinking walking around bare ass naked this morning?" Bobby was no almost completely turned around in his seat. "Did you forget that our little sister was in the house?" Angel mumbled something incoherently and then stared determinedly out the window, since Brittany was sitting on the other side of Jack. Bobby prepared himself to go in for the kill, and he would have, if Jeremiah hadn't purposely stopped the car a little suddenly and all four of them flew forward a few inches. Bobby, who of course had not been wearing his seatbelt, ended up in a heap on the floor in front of his seat.

"We're here," Jerry announced cheerily, turning off the engine.

They all managed to crawl out of the European automobile in one piece, and Jeremiah led them into a very tall, very shiny building. Brittany had, of course, seen many skyscrapers akin to this one in New York, where she had lived with Jack, but somehow this one intimidated her in a way she did not know or like. Inside, everything looked as grand as the outside did. A round desk sat in the very middle of the vast lobby, and standing inside the circular enclosure, typing furiously at a computer, was a pretty blonde secretary. Jerry began walking calmly towards the girl and the desk, but Bobby strutted quickly past him.

"Can I help you, sir?" the secretary asked when Bobby reached the desk and rested his folded arms upon the marble surface.

"Yeah," he replied, putting on his best smile, "My siblings and I are here to see a guy named Bradford." The secretary seemed immediately flustered by Bobby's presence, and she was fumbling with a large appointment book as Brittany and the other Mercer brothers approached, standing behind Bobby. Brittany saw the gold nametag shining above her left breast. It read: SUSANNE SUMMERS.

"I'm sorry," Susanne Summers said, "The only appointment I have for Mr. Bradford is with the Mercer siblings.

"Yes, ma'am," Brittany said before Bobby could start in again, "That's us. We're Evelyn Mercer's children." Susanne looked at each of them in turn.

"All of you?" she asked in wonder.

"Yep, all of us," Bobby told her, now quickly losing his patience, "Now can we see this Bradford guy or not?" The harshness in his voice appeared to make her jump, and she mutely pointed them to the elevator on her right.

"Level Eight," he said, still in awe.

The five of them left Susanne Summers and clambered into the spacious elevator. Bobby pressed the button with the 8 on it, and up they went. They all leaned against the three other walls. Brittany and Jack on one, Angel and Jeremiah on another, and Bobby with a wall of his own. The oldest Mercer's eyes flitted to Brittany, who stood directly across from him with Jack. She knew before he spoke that he had noticed the grey hood poking out of the top of the Redwings sweatshirt she was wearing.

"I thought you said your grey sweatshirt was dirty?" he said frowning at his little sister. Brittany looked over at him expressionlessly and shrugged on shoulder.

"I lied," she said with a carelessness that normally would be a smile on her brother's face, but now just irritated him because it was cast in his direction.

"Then why did you ask for my sweatshirt?" he continued on.

"It's cold." This exchange of Twenty Questions could have gone on a while longer, but the elevator dinged its stopped and they all exited, Bobby eyeing Brittany one more time before stepping out in the lavish halls.

The lawyer, Bradford was waiting for them with a pleasant smile upon his face and led them to his office. He was an old man, with wispy white hair. It pained Brittany to think about how he reminded her of Mom, and she suddenly realized how hard it would be to be around old people period. She took a seat when Bradford told them to, their backs to the gigantic window that looked out on most of Detroit.

"It is so nice to finally meet you all," he said sincerely, "Evelyn talked so highly of you five." Brittany managed a smile, but she knew he brothers and Jack were just staring back at Bradford with brooding expressions. The lawyer didn't seem intimidated though, which was a good thing.

"Yes," he continued, "Well, I suppose you know why you're here, so let's just get started. I assume you would like to began with the reading of your mother's Last Will and Testament, so I'll just-"

"With all due respect, sir," Bobby suddenly spoke up, "We can just skip that. We assume she left us the house, and the car, and that's all we really need to know."

None of the others objected to what Bobby was suggesting, but all four of his siblings were looking at him, with a mix of confusion and pity. They all knew why he had made the decision to skip the reading of the will, and Brittany's heart sank. Bobby had not accepted their mother's death, not yet. She also felt pity for what she knew would be nearly a dozen people who were going to cross Bobby's path as he searched for the truth. Until he found the person who killed their mother, there would be no rest for the mind of Bobby Mercer.

"Yes, sir," said Brittany after a very long thirty seconds, "We trust you not to cheat us...the pain is just too great for us to hear words our mother wrote down for us to hear." Bradford surveyed them all, and then nodded, a kind smile upon his wrinkled face.

"Yes," he said, "I know how difficult it must to deal with such mundane financial matters while one's heart still grieves for a love one."

"How much to we get?" Jack piped up. The question was immediately met with all three brothers reaching out and hitting Jack upside his head. Brittany just remained silent, looking down at the table.

"Yes, well, I'll be just a moment," said Bradford as he got up from the table to gather what looked like a safety deposit box, and a small stack of papers, "I'll need one of you to sign these papers for the house and the car." What would have normally been a noisy affair to decide who would sign, no one objected as Bobby simply leaned forward and scrawled his sloppy signature across the dotted lines of the pages. "Alright, you are not owner of the house and the car.

"Now these." He gestured at the envelopes he had brought over. "Are letters that your mother wrote to each of you specifically. You may read them when you wish." He passed out the letters and then left them to go through the safety deposit box. Bobby handed things out as he went, handing things out as he went. Jeremiah got his birth certificate, Jack got his adoption papers. The rest of them, Brittany included, got nothing. A few other trinkets were left in there, and then Bobby found a wad of cash.

"Here we go," he said as he counted out the money and handed each of them a share, purposely forgetting Jack.

"Hey, what about me?" Jack asked as they all made to leave. Bobby reached into the metal box before shutting it and tossed a necklace with a cross on it at his little brother.

"There you go, that'll look good on you. Now let's go get a fucking drink." They all agreed to that.

On the way to the bar, they made a short stop at a group of crumbling buildings the Jerry was apparently trying to fix up, make a name for himself. After five minutes of being hassled by Bobby about how utterly pointless it was, Jeremiah let them all leave and the drove the rest of the way to the bar. For an hour Brittany sat with her brothers, watching them down shot after shot of whiskey, while she sat back drinking a whole lot of water.

"Jack drinks Jack...Jack drinks Jack," Jack started singing in a slurred voice as he continued drinking Jack Daniels.

"Jackie is drunk!" Jeremiah stated, pretty smashed himself.

"Jack likes ass crack and ball sack," Bobby says steadily, never too tired, or drunk, to pick on his little brothers.

"Jack doesn't like ass crack ball sack!" Jack exclaims defensively, "Jacks likes boobs. Jack's got fans. Jack's got lots of fans." Brittany, who was sitting slightly behind and between Jack and Angel, swiftly kicked Jackie hard in the shin, clearing her throat. He turned to look at her.

"Though, of course, none of them measure up to you," he said sweetly, though his speech still slurred. She rolled her eyes.

"Why can't you guys ever just be nice to each other?" Brittany asked rhetorically as she took another drink of her water. Bobby was staring at her again.

"Why you not drinking?" he asked her as she brought the glass from her lips. She twitched a laughing smile and arched an eyebrow at him.

"Bobby," she said, "Just because we actually look like we're related doesn't mean I take after you in every aspect alright."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Bobby, you're drunk as a fish!"

"I am not, I'm-Holy crap, did you see that girl?" He stared behind him after the person who just walked by. Brittany had a hard time holding her giggles in.

"You mean Carl," she said flatly. Bobby squinted his eyes and then turned back to the group.

"Boy's got a nice ghetto booty developing." That cracked them all up until Johnny G, a long time acquaintance and their favorite bartender, walked up to their table and leaned in.

"Hey, guys I'm really sorry to hear about your Mom," he said with complete sincerity, "Filthy gangs. Worms. The whole lot of them should be killed." This perked everyone up, especially Bobby.

"Which gang, Johnny G?" he asked soberly. Jeremiah sighed.

"Here we go again," he said, "You never change man. Mamma always said 'As bright as Bobby is he just does not like to think.' No good is gonna come of this, man. Let the police do there damn job."

"Police?" Angel asked.

"Jerry, you know half the cops in this town are crooked," Bobby said softly, "You think the other half give a shit about another dime store shooting?" Brittany sat their in silence, not allowing herself to say anything, because she knew she was on Bobby and Angel's side, and she was somewhat disgusted with herself. Jerry was right. With Bobby the only plan was to just grab a gun and shoot till you got some answers. But one of her traits she had tried so hard to forget was her everlasting rage, and it was coming out. Someone had killed the only person in the world who ever gave a damn about her well being. Evelyn Mercer had shown her love, given her a family, and someone had taken her from Brittany. They were going to pay, and she was going to help. She looked up just as Jerry left.

"Tell us what's going on, Johnny," she said as she got up and took Jerry's empty seat.

"Alright, here's what I heard..."

Bobby opened the trunk of his car a half an hour later. Brittany had often wondered why he bothered keeping the damn thing, because it looked like crap and smelled worse, but Bobby never gave her a straight answer. He just called this car his "lucky charm" and that was the end of the discussion. Now, she stood with Bobby, Jack, and Angel, staring into the trunk. Bobby looked over at Angel.

"You got a burner?" he asked.

"I flew in," Angel explained. Bobby reached in and handed his little brother a gun. Angel whistled.

"You like that?"

"Yeah, does it have any ammo?" He was examining it, the barrel pointed at Bobby.

"Yeah, its loaded little brother, so be careful. Brittany, I assume you're packing." Brittany grinned and lifted up bother layers of sweatshirts, revealing a gun of her own.

"Always," she said proudly. Bobby smiled at her and then shoved a gas can at Jack. "Here, Jackie, you can carry this."

"Are you gonna do the gas thing?" Jack asked as he got a hold of the red plastic container.

"Yeah, we're gonna do the gas thing," Bobby said, mimicking Jack teasingly, "The only thing that scared people more than burning to death is getting eaten alive."

"Yeah," Brittany said, "And we have no way of simulating that." Bobby nodded at her and then made to close the trunk. Jack thrust his arm out to stop him.

"Hey, wait," he said, "What do I get?"

"Oh, are you coming with us?" Bobby said, he reached in and grabbed a crowbar, "Here you go, sweetheart, poke 'em with this."

"Thanks," Jack said, insulted.

Armed and semi-dangerous, the four set off to the location Johnny G had hinted to them. Brittany recognized the red concrete building as they approached. It used to be an old meat-packing plant, and was apparently still a hot hangout for the local gangs. They all stopped out in front of it, and Bobby looked back at his three siblings. All of them were ready for this. He nodded and then stood up and started towards the building.

"Alright, Five-O!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, "We have the place surrounded. Come out with your hands up!" Brittany, Angel, and Jack came behind him, holding their assorted arms, and a couple of flashlights. Black teens started pouring out of the building in groups. Some realized that the Mercer siblings were not cops, and some didn't, but none seemed to want to mess with them as they pushed their way further into the building and found the main place where the leader was sure to be.

"Police, I want see your fucking hands in the air!"

Brittany and Angel spread out and forced all of the other people to sit down, Brittany surprised at how quickly she reverted to the harshness of threatening others with a firearm. Angel seemed to be having no problem, and Bobby had already grabbed the leader and had shoved him down into an armchair. He took the gas can from Jack and poured the gasoline from the nozzle all over the black man. He protested, and received a sock in the mouth.

"No, now is not the talking part," Bobby informed him, "Now is the listening part."

"Which one of your guys shot up the store on 109th street?" Angel asked, his gun still pointed at the other people. The leader gave a muffled reply.

"Don't even hit us with that bullshit, the police got witnesses." More muffled replies. Brittany and Bobby exchanged a glance as she kicked a guy in the stomach as he tried to get away. This method wasn't getting them anywhere. Bobby turned back to the gang leader. He took Jack's cigarette from him and leaned down in front of the guy's face.

"I don't think you're gonna tell me what I want to know," he said, "So I'm going to light you're little bitch ass on fire. And then I'm going to watch you run around here like a chicken with his head cut off, lighting all your little friends on fire. Is that how you want to go?" The man shook his head.

"Alright now is the talking part," said Bobby, "And you better start saying what the fuck I want to hear. Speak." He took the sock out of the guy's mouth.

"Man, what the fuck are you guys doing?" he asked angrily, "Y'all ain't cops so why y'all here?"

"We heard your guys were involved in the shoot," Bobby told him.

"Man, that shit was counterfeit as a motherfucker," the gang leader shouted at them, "Ain't nobody playing basketball when that shit went down?" Bobby scowled and threw a hard right-hand punch into the guy's jaw.

"How do you know no one was playing basketball if you weren't there?"

"Because, bitch, those cops say those people weren't killed till eleven!"

"So?" Brittany spoke from her position.

"They turn the court lights out at ten." The gang leader looked around at the Mercers as though that would be the end of it, but instead Bobby grabbed him and dragged him out with them. Brittany followed, Angel and Jack behind her. They hauled the guy out all the way to the basketball courts by the store. It was two minutes after ten at the lights were still shining brightly.

"It's after ten and these lights are still on," Bobby said, turning to the leader who was being held by Angel, "It was all a lie. I say we pop this motherfucker right now." He and Angel started dragging him off, guns drawn. To Brittany's horror, she listened to Jack walk after them.

"Come on, guys, just calm down," he was saying. She had forgotten that Jack was not one of them in this aspect. He had never hurt anyone in his life unless it was to save his own. Brittany almost joined him, intending to detour Bobby from ending the guy's life, when the court lights shut off behind them. Crisis averted. The gang leader tried to smart off, but he received another blow in the jaw for his efforts.

Home looked so welcoming when they finally arrived back at the house. Brittany hadn't realized just how exhausted she was until she walked into the house. Sofi quickly grabbed Angel and pulled him upstairs. Great, she and Jack were going to have to sleep in the living room tonight. Their room was right next door to theirs. Brittany didn't even bother pulling Bobby's sweatshirt off before walking into the living room and falling in a heap on the couch. She listened to Bobby and Jack talk in the kitchen about what they found out tonight, about the witness being fake. It was going to be an interesting day tomorrow that was for sure.

She was almost asleep when she felt Jack's lips brush her forehead and heard him mutter something wearily. She opened her own tired eyes.

"I love you too, Jack," she said with a smile, "Do you want to take the couch?" He had grabbed a few blankets from the cabinet, but she felt bad that he always had to sleep on floor. Ideally, she wouldn't have minded them sleeping on the floor together again, but that had caused far too much trouble the first time.

"No," Jack said, shaking his head firmly, "You need to take the couch." She rolled her eyes.

"I do not," Brittany said stubbornly. Jack held up a hand, a sure sign he didn't want to argue.

"Just take it. Look? I'm already set up." She let out a sigh and then smiled at him. He smiled back, and they shared a brief kiss before Brittany let her head fall back onto the pillow. She heard other footsteps and then the living room light clicked off.

"Good night you two," Bobby said softly, in an almost tender voice. She tried murmuring a reply, but before she knew it she was asleep.


	6. Dog Bites and Car Chases

Disclaimer: Guess what? I don't own any of the Four Brothers characters! D Except Brittany...shes mine!

Note: Yes, I know, bad author slaps hand I'm terrible for keeping you guys waiting But! I have now given you chapter 6. Yay! I will try and get 7 up shortly, but don't get your hopes up, obviously. I have a lot going on. Family stuff, plus school stuff. Its just...bleh. But, I would like to say that I was very touched by the number of reviews I continued getting even after I hadn't put the next chapter up in a while. That was really what got me going and I thank my readers SO much schmuggles you all Anyway, I hope you like this chapter. It was a pain for me to write, because a lot of it is coming straight from the movie. This is all leading up to the sequel, but I obviously didn't want to just leap into that. There needed to be a background for Brittany. So just bare with me through this one and I will really WOW! you all wit the sequel ) The car chase scene may not be perfect. I had to keep running back and forth between my room where the DVD player is and the computer which is in the living room and unless I wrote it down, I forgot half of what I watched by the time I got to the desk. So again, just bare with me here xD

I would like to mention, that I currently have no spellcheck...we recently had to re-install Windows XP on our computer and we no longer have Microsoft Word. I could get it checked by a friend, but I need grammar check too xD Right now, I just want to get it posted. When I get Word back I will spell/grammar check this chapter and repost it

Before I let you all enjoy my chapter, I would like to give special thanks, once again, to TvLuVa. We haven't been keeping up, but I always know shes rooting for me, and will be one of the first to read this chapter ) Shes always ready to help me and I really appreciate that. Alright, now go read!

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**Chapter Six: Dog Bites and Car Chases**

Brittany was shook awake what felt like just hours later. Not hard, but enough to make her jolt and sit up quickly resulting in a painful head rush. She winced, groaned, and held the side of her head with a hand that still wore a glove on it. She hadn't bothered taking anything off when she fell asleep. She was still wearing Bobby's Redwings sweatshirt. She looked up after the lightheadedness went away, and saw Bobby standing in front of her.

"Sorry to wake you, kiddo," he said gruffly, "But we got to get going. The store is going to open any minute." Brittany leaned back against the couch, mostly because she was still tired, and also because her neck was beginning to hurt from looking up at her brother. She glanced over at the clock in the hallway. It was only seven thirty in the morning.

"What are you talking about?" she asked him as she shut her eyes. All Brittany wanted to do was go back to sleep. She heard movement to her left and opened her eyes to see Jack pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace.

"We're going to the store to ask the owner if he knows what the phony witness looks like," Bobby told her. She sighed, closing her eyes a moment longer. And then she was up and getting ready to leave herself. She pulled off the Redwings sweatshirt and slipped into her gray jacket instead. She was zipping it up over her grey sweatshirt as Angel trumped downstairs. He had a sour look on his face.

"Aw, what's the matter, Angel?" Brittany said teasingly, "Were you and Sofi having a good time?"

"Shut up," he mumbled as he pushed past her. She grinned broadly as she tried smoothing down her hair, but she gave up and just threw the hood to her sweatshirt up over her head. She looked at Jack, Angel, and Bobby. They all looked so somber, and it pained her to see them like that. But the again, it probably pained them to see her the same way. The fact was, this was a somber time, and there was no sense in beating around that particular bush.

"Alright, is everyone ready to go?" Bobby asked. They all nodded, and silently left the house. They walked to Bobby's car, and Brittany and Jack slid into the back seats. Angel sat shotgun, and Bobby started the short drive the the market on 109th street. Brittany was still a little groggy, but she was determined to keep her spirits up. She had to, because the last thing she wanted was for Jack to slip backwards after all the years of progress he had made.

The short trip to the store was mad in complete quietude, none of them saying a word to each other, even when Bobby took the corners so fast the they were all thrown in every direction. When the reached the front of the market Bobby threw on the brakes and they all went flying forward, Brittany included. Jack caught her before she went too far.

"Jesus, Bobby, slow down!" he scolded at his older brother. Bobby turned around and regarded Jack with raised eyebrows. Jack seemed to wither before him. "Just be careful will you?" Bobby seemed ready to say something, but Brittany cut him off.

"Can we just get out of the car please?" she said, looking at both of them. The last thing she needed was to listen to bickering this early in the morning. Bobby sighed, and got out, grumbling under his breath. He pushed his seat up so Brittany could get out, and Angel did the same thing on the other side so Jack could get out. They all walked to the front of the car and leaned against it. Brittany actually sat on the hood. Twenty minutes later...

"'The store is going to open any minute,'" she said irritably, quoting Bobby from earlier. Bobby glared at her and she reluctantly remained silent, sitting next to Jack with her arms crossed.

They were only waiting about another half an hour before someone showed up. It was Jeremiah. He got out of his white car that glistened a little too much in the morning sun. Brittany and the others just sort of remained silent until he walked over to join them. He looked like a man who had done a lot of heavy thinking (and drinking) and had come to a conclusion he didn't particularly like. He didn't apologize to them. He didn't blame his behavior on the traditional Mercer Olympic Drinking Games. He just looked reasonably and soberly at them.

"Ok, I'm here," he said with a shrug, "Whats up?"

"Last night we found out it wasn't random," Angel told him grudgingly, "Someone paid the witness to tell the cops it was a gang shooting." Jeremiah looked like he wanted to swear, and loudly. He didn't.

"Are you serious, man?" he asked like he didn't want to believe it.

"Yeah."

At that moment Jack tapped Brittany on the shoulder with the back of his hand. She looked up to see an aged man walking up to the front of the store. She watched as her brothers and Jack walked forward towards him, and she slid off the hood of Bobby's car to join them. The store owner looked absolutely terrified as the Mercers walked up to him. Brittany didn't blame him. He had just recently been robbed, and by the looks of him, the clerk that had been murdered along with her mother was related to him. His son maybe.

"Can I help you?" the man asked them nervously.

"Yes, sir, if we could have just a minute of your time," Jack said gently before anyone else could open their mouths, "Evelyn Mercer was our mother." Brittany could not help but feel proud of Jack right then. The store owner seemed to relax considerably at Jack's innocent demeanor. He outweighed the rough look to the others. She smiled to add to the act. The man smiled softly back.

"Ah, she was a good lady," he told them sorrowfully, "I liked her very much. Please, come inside."

The five of them stepped into the store after the short man, and he led them over to the counter where the cash register sat. Brittany could still see the hole where the bullet had hit the wall after passing through the clerk's body. She tried not to think that a similar bullet had killed her mother. She just hunched her shoulders, stood next to Jack, and watched as the store owner brought out a TV monitor from under the counter. Her eyes shot to Bobby, staring sharply at his blank face. What was going on? This had not been part of the plan. They were here to ask the store owner some questions not...

Her thoughts went to Jack, and she looked beside her. His face was blank like Bobby's, but his blue eyes quivered with a fear that tore Brittany's heart in half. She looked back to Bobby, who was staring intently at the monitor the owner was getting ready to turn on. She willed him to look at her, begged him in her mind to stop this. It would only make the hurt worse! But her brother did not look her way, did not even half glacne in her direction. He merely watched as the store owner pressed play, and then there was nothing she could do but watch as well.

Evelyn Mercer walked into the store at 10:56PM according the camera clock. Only a small, African American boy was in the smalle store. He glanced in Evelyn's direction, and then made to leave. Just as he was walking past the counter where tonight's clerk stood, unaware of his impending doom, Evelyn caught him by the arm, and pulled something out of the boy's pocket. The images on the camera were fuzzy, but Brittany got the impression that the boy had been shoplifting, and her mother had caught him. The idea caused Brittany to let a half-hearted smile twitch across her lips, as she watched as Evelyn talked to the boy, and eventually let him go home. She said something to the clerk, and then headed to the back of the store where she was checking out the turkeys for a Thanksgiving dinner she would not live to cook.

The next series of events became a blur, not because of how fast they happened, but because Brittany's eyes began to well up with tears as she watched a pair of masked men burst into the store, guns raised. Her mother hid behind one the shelves, cowering agains the wood. The four Mercer brothers, and Brittany, watched as the shooter at the counter shot the clerk in the chest. Their attention then diverted to the back of the store, where Brittany assumed her mother had yelled a little at the sound of the gunshot. She forced herself to take her eyes of the screen at look at her brothers who were all teary eyed, but it was Jack who she worried about. His face was scrunched up, and tears were streaming down his face. If there had ever been a time that Brittany wanted to take him in her arms and tell him it would be alright, it was now. But she didn't do that because, in the far reaches of her brain where she had stuffed the hardened teenager that had first graced the Mercer doorstep, she knew he needed to see this. He needed to hate the people that did this, because this was not going to end without everyone who had been involved dead.

To her left Bobby said something, but she had been so focused on Jack she hadn't heard him. She turned her head back to the monitor just in time to catch the sight of two bullets passing through her mother's body. She felt an impact against her chest, and she knew that a piece of it had just been obliterated. Beside her she felt Jack turn and walk a few steps from the counter. Immediately Brittany turned and stepped over to him, wrapping her arms around him and burying her face in his jacket. She felt his own arms wrap tightly around her, and her heart began to repair itself. She still had Jack. She was OK.

"The cops said there was a witness who told them this was a gang shooting," Bobby said to the store owner as the owner turned the monitor off, "You know anything about that?" The old man seemed to ponder this a moment.

"The policed talked a long to one man," he told them, "One man more than the others."

"Would you know what this guy looked like if you see him again?"

"He comes in for Gatorade after the games. A big guy, always wears sweats, never a jacket even in snow or rain. Hes got a dog and a..." The store owner trailed off, miming something with his hands near his head.

"A fro?" Angel asked, catching on to the charade, "Like an afro? Like Ben Wallace the basketball player?" Brittany, who had disengaged herself from Jack, and watched as the short man smiled and nodded.

"Pistons! Yes, Ben Wallace." Bobby was nodding too.

"Is he on the courts a lot?" he asked the store owner.

"On the courts, or, uh, at the gym." Bobby gave another nod, thanked the man, and then turned and hurried out of the store. Jeremiah, Angel, Brittany, and Jack were quick to follow him. As a group they moved across the street as Brittany watched Bobby's face go from distressed to angry.

"That wasn't a , that was an execution," he growled, "They set mom up. They set her up! Come on." He set off at a jog in the direction of the gymnasium, and the others followed suit. Brittany could only imagine what Bobby had up his sleeve.

The gym was just as Brittany remembered it, except there were more broken windows than the last time she had seen it. The five of them walked through the double doors at the front of the building and walked down the hall. Loud cheers and shouts could be heard coming from the indoor basketball court, and it became obvious that a game was in progress. The entered through another set of doors and stood between a gap in the stands. They all stood there, watching the game. Brittany glanced at Bobby, trying to get an idea of what he was planning. Jeremiah seemed to be trying to same tactic...except verbally.

"So whats the plan, Bobby?" he asked, his tone suggesting that _any_ plan was absolutely absurd as far as he was concerned.

"We're winging it, Jerry," Bobby answered.

"Why we always got to wing it?" Jeremiah muttered. Brittany rolled her eyes, but inside she was smiling. She loved it when her brothers bickered like this. Beside her Jack and Angel exchanged a few words, but her focus was on the eldest Mercer. What was he going to do?

Suddenly, Bobby sprung into action. In a manner of speaking. He strutted out into the middle of the ongoing game, the referee immediately blowing his whistle furiously to call everyone to a halt. The referee walked up to Bobby and yelled something at him, to which Bobby replied and grabbed the ball out of the referee's hands. He began bouncing it around the court, egging the players on while the crowd around them booed. Brittany watched tensely as one player went for Bobby, but her brother was too quick for him and hit the guy in the face with the basketball, taking him down to the floor. People swarmed on top of him, but he stood up quickly...and pulled out his gun.

"Oh God," she murmured as she watched everyone on the court back up from Bobby in fear and the people in the crowd began shouting louder, but no one left the gym. This was Detroit. These things happened. Jeremiah jogged out onto the court to back Bobby up as he started to shout to the crowd about their mother's death, describing the "witness" to the crowd.

Brittany was aware of Angel leaving back through the double doors, leaving Jack and her to scan the bleachers. If the witness was here, or someone who knows the witness, they sure weren't going to want to stick around. She intently watched one side of the gymnasium while Jack watched the other. While she was watching she felt a hand slip into her's. Her eyes came off the bleachers and turned to stared up at Jack. He was still looking the other way, but he was smiling. Brittany couldn't help but smile either. Then Jack pointed subtlely towards one of the bleachers. A male teenager had gotten up during Bobby's little speech and was making his was to the exit on the other side of the court. Jack took off after him.

She watched him go, and then let her eyes slip to Bobby and Jeremiah in the middle of the court, still shouting back and forth with the players and the referee. Her mind drifted to the events at the store. It couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes ago that she had watched her mother shot by two guys robbing the convenient store on the monitor the store owner had set up on the counter. Until that she had been wondering whether they_ were_ doing the right thing in trying to find the people responsible, but now there was no question. Their mother had been killed intentionally. By who, and for what reasons Brittany didn't know, but she and her brothers were going to find out. Somehow, someway, everyone involved would pay.

"We got him," said a voice beside her, and Brittany was yanked out of her thoughts to see Jack standing beside her and motioning for Bobby and Jeremiah. Bobby gave the referee the ball back and started towards them. They all headed outside the gym where Angel had the young teen Brittany and Jack had seen leaving the bleachers pinned against the wall.

"Meet Keenon," he said, indicating the boy as they all gathered around, "Something tells me he was on his way to deliver a warning." Bobby stepped forward. This timed it seemed appropriate. He was their leader, and interrogations were his specialty.

"Hi, Keenon, I'm Bobby," he greeted the boy in an uncharacteristically kind voice, "Who is he Keenon?" The teenager looked at Bobby with the sad eyes of a person trying to protect someone they love.

"Damian," he finally answered, "Hes my brother." Bobby perked up, putting on a wide grin, but Brittany could tell it was just to make the kid comfortable giving them information.

"Hes your brother? No shit, these are my brothers, and my sister." Bobby pointed his finger around at the rest of the Mercer siblings. Keenon looked around at them all, one of his eyebrows arched in puzzlement.

"No, man, hes my real brother." Bobby gave a little laugh.

"Yeah, these are my real brothers," he insisted, "This is Angel. I'm Bobby. This is Brittany, Jack, and Jeremiah. Now what about you and Damian? You guys still close? He still live at home?" With that continually soothing tone, it seemed a wonder to Brittany that this was the same Bobby Mercer who wasn't going to stop until he personally "dealt with" the people who were responsible for killing their mother.

"Yeah," Keenon told him, "But I ain't telling you shit else." Angel, who was standing next to the kid in case he tried to be daring and escape, nodded.

"Yeah, I wouldn't sell out my brothers either," he said, and Brittany was suckered into a smile.God, she loved these guys.

Bobby slid the kid's backpack off of his shoulder and handed it to Jeremiah who opened it and pulled out a report card. He glanced over it, and pointed at the address on the paper. Brittany took a deep breath. Just one step closer to the end, and then they could go back to their lives. Of course, in the deep corners of her mind she knew there would be more complications, but her cynical side had not yet completely taken control again. She hoped it stayed subdued. She wasn't in a state to be cynical.

"Alright," Bobby said to Keenon as they all made to leave, "Enjoy the rest of the game, and don't worry. We're just going to talk to him."

Back in the car, Bobby drove around the gym to the apartment building where Damian, the fake witness, lived. They sat in the car, waiting for him to return. Brittany, Jack, and Jeremiah were in the back. None of them were really speaking. They were all sort of lost in their own thoughts. It seemed appropriate after all that had happened this morning. It was not everyday that you were able to watch a video of your mother being shot and killed. Brittany didn't much like the silence in the car, but she knew it was for the best. Of course, eventually someone had to speak.

"Why would someone hire a goddamn shooter to kill mom?" Jeremiah wondered aloud in the back seat. Brittany turned to look at him, a melancholy look on her face. Jerry always had to be the one to speak what was on everyone else's mind.

"I'll tell you what," Bobby answered him gruffly, "Let's wait till the guy gets back and we'll ask him." Next to her, Brittany heard Jeremiah sigh.

"Y'all do what y'all got to do," he said, "I got gymnastics. Come on, let me out of the car." The other four Mercers glanced at each other and then they all broke out into laughter. It felt good, blissful even.

"You got your leotard on, Jerry?" Bobby teased. Jerry rolled his eyes.

"You know what I mean man. I got a schedule to keep. The girls got gymnastics and I got to take 'em. Now let me outta the car." Bobby mimicked Jeremiah's eye roll and then pushed his seat forward so Jeremiah could get out.

"You want to take Cracker Jack with you? Hes very flexible." Brittany snorted laughter into her hand and giggled. Jack mumbled something back, but there was a smile on his face. With Jeremiah gone, Brittany shifted so that her back was to the other window and her feet were in Jack's lap. Bobby and Angel began talking about something, but she wasn't paying them any attention. She was back to swimming in the dark pools of her mind.

What were they doing here? Brittany kept asking herself this question, even though she knew every one of the many answers. They were here for revenge. They were here because their mother deserved some effort on their part. They were here because not matter how long they had been apart, Bobby was still their leader, and they would follow him through all of his crazy plans. And they were all here because the part of them that had landed them in Evelyn Mercer's house in the first place, wanted them to be here. But the Brittany that had developed these last few years, had doubts about whether they should really be here. Not that it would really matter in the long run.

"Hey," Jack called out, yanking Brittany from her thoughts, "Hey, its him!" They all looked out the window, and there was no mistaking their target. Dressed in sweats, and a big afro of hair on top of his head. Bobby gave the word and they all piled out of the car, jogging towards the apartment building the guy, Damien, was just entering. They filed in through the door, and Brittany could tell that their adrenaline was already pumping. The came down the main hall and saw the guy standing at the elevator.

"Hey, Damien!" Bobby shouted, making the guy look over at them, "You Damien?" As he said this, he pulled a gun from his jacket and held it in the air. Damien's eyes widened and he darted into the elevator. Bobby took off down the hall while the others followed him, Angel yelling irritably at Bobby about pulling the gun out. But there was not time to dwell on the oldest Mercer's hot head. They got to the elevator doors just as they closed. Bobby looked up at the numbers above the doors and then looked at Jack.

"Jack tell me when it stops," he ordered, "Angel, Brittany, come with me!" With that he sprinted up the stairwell nearby, Angel hot on his heels. Brittany began following them but then doubled back and placed and quick kiss on Jack's cheek as he watched the numbers on the elevator. He glanced over at her as she quickly backed up towards the stairs. She gave him a look like 'Just in case', and then disappeared up the steps after her brothers.

She took it easy, pacing herself as she ran up flight-after-flight of stairs, listening to the shouts above her as Angel and Bobby closed the distance between them and Damien. After what to be only a minute or two, Jack called up to them that the elevator stopped at six. Brittany was at four. She picked up her pace, breathing heavily. Suddenly, she heard gunshots above her, and the sounds of dogs barking. Forgetting about saving her stamina, Brittany broke out into a dash and quickly made it to the sixth floor where she glimpsed Angel grabbing a fire extinguisher and head back down the hall. She could hear Bobby's shouts for help and ran after Angel.

Dogs had never been a favorite of Brittany's, or any of the Mercers for that matter. Jack had once tried bringing a puppy home but it didn't last very long. Brittany rounded a corner, still following her brother, in time to see Angel spray the fire extinguisher at a pair of Rottweilers who had been trying to tear Bobby to shreds. Both dogs yelped and took off in the other direction. She rushed forward to help Bobby up as Angel ran into one of the apartments. Bobby was covering his eyes with his hands and groaning. Brittany guided him into the apartment after Angel.

"Give me something for me eyes," Bobby pleaded. Angel tossed him a bottle of water that had been sitting on a table. Brittany reached under her jacket and pulled out her own gun, looking around the room warily.

"The dude went out the window!" called Angel suddenly, and Brittany turned to look. Sure enough, there was a rope dangling out of the window in the living room. All three of them huddled close to the window sill and peered out. Damien, who was half-way down the side of the building, shot a couple of bullets up in their direction. Angel grabbed Brittany, who had been hanging half out of the window, and thrust her backwards where she collided hard with a side table. She glared at the back of his head, but it was not time to get into a sibling argument.

Bobby had grabbed Angel's gun, which was really Bobby's gun, and fired back at Damien. But this exchange was not getting them anyway. They need to try something else. Of course, always the innovator, Bobby glanced into the small kitchen where Brittany saw him grab the butcher's knife that had been stuck in a cutting board.

"I'm through messing with his guy," he said, our of breath, "All I wanted to do was talk." And with that he slammed the knife down on the rope, which immediately broke. Damien made a soft crunching thud as he hit the ground.

"Is he dead?" Brittany asked from behind them.

"Nah," Bobby answered, "Hes just fucked up. Lets go talk to him now."

Outside the temperature had dropped considerably, but Brittany didn't feel it as she and her brothers walked quickly over to where their target had fallen. Brittany grimaced as they got close enough to see the damage. His leg had practically been shattered in the fall, and a splintered bone poked out amidst torn flesh. She felt her stomach churn a little, but then the feeling was gone. She really didn't feel this was the time to be throwing up. Bobby looked back at them and nodded to Jack. Jack nodded back.

"Man, you must be freezing!," Jack said, loud enough for Damien to hear him. Brittany fought not to giggle, catching on to the plan. To add to the act, she wrapped her arms around herself and gave a fake shiver.

"Brrrrr," she said half-heartedly. Damien was breathing hard and grunting with pain as they approached. Bobby looked down at him with his powerful stare.

"You know why we're here Damien?" he asked.

"Come on, man," he panted, "Call me an ambulance."

"What for my dog bites?" Bobby teased, looking at the holes in his jacket, "No, I'll be OK. Give me a name, and I'll call 911. I want to know who shot up that liquor store now."

"I didn't shoot nobody." Brittany was starting to feel a knot in her stomach as she gazed down at the man on the ground. She could only imagine the pain he was in, and all there were doing was questioning him. No. Frustrated with herself she shoved that thought away. This guy had information about their mother's death. If he would rather die than tell them, then she'd have to make a note to send his parents some flowers.

"What's that?" Angel said, cupping a hand around his ear, "Can't hear you, playboy, with all this wind outside. If we leave, ain't nobody going to hear your either."

"They say it's going to be a cold night," Jack added, keeping up with everyone else better than Brittany would have guess, "Not going to make it far on that leg." She marveled at how she had underestimated him. But she knew it wouldn't last forever. He was still Jack.

"Man, listen," Damien said, his voice barely above a whisper, "These to guys told me they'd pay me if I told the cops I saw a couple of gangsters shootin' up the place, but I didn't hurt no one."

"OK, then turn into a fucking fudge-cicle," Angel said harshly and then they all turned to leave.

"Come on, man," Damien pleaded after them, "I can't say nothing."

"Fair enough," Bobby told him plainly, "You're going to die right here."

This time they all did leave, turning their backs on the injured man, walking away from him as he begged them to come back. Brittany no longer felt any remorse about what they were doing, but she looked beside her and noticed that Jack had lagged behind. She glanced back and saw him hesitate before following them, a pained look on his face. The knot in her stomach got bigger, and she could feel the hard exterior that had almost gotten firm grip on her soften.

"You think he's going to talk?" Angel asked Bobby to her right.

"Did you see that Chinese spare rib hanging out of his leg?" Bobby answered, "Its just a matter of time." Jack had arrived next to Brittany, but he was looking back at Damien, barely paying attention to the rest of them. Meanwhile, Bobby and Angel were continuing their conversation.

"You sure?" Angel asked, grinning. Then they both caught sight of Jack and looked over at him with irritated looked on their faces.

"What the fuck are you looking at?" Bobby asked him. Then, finally, Damien spoke up behind them, breaking up what would have been a mild argument. Brittany could feel the knot grow a little bit more when Bobby had yelled at Jack, but now their were walking back over to Damien, and she pushed it to the back of her mind.

"I'll tell you where you can find them!" Damien had called to them.

"Give me a name," Bobby said when they stopped next to him.

* * *

It was night by the time they arrived at the club where Damien had told them they could find the shooters. Brittany knew she should be tired, but she was far from it. She walked determinedly next to her brothers as they walked into the club. The place was dimly lit, with a big neon sign near the door. They all stood in the entrance, trying to look casual as they scanned the entire room for anyone fitting the description they had been given. 

"Goatee, goatee," Angel murmured beside her, "Look for the man with the goatee." Damien had given them very vague descriptions of the shooters, except he said that one guy had a strange braided goatee. That was all they needed. Brittany was looking, but she could barely see anyone's face, let alone their facial hair.

"I see him," Jack piped up suddenly, and they all tried to follow his gaze.

"Where?" Bobby asked.

"Right there," Jack said, pointing his finger at the bar, where there was plainly a guy with a goatee, "The guy with the goatee." Brittany's heart had practically jumped out of her chest when she saw Jack's pointing finger. Bad idea. Bobby seemed to feel the same way because he shoved Jack's arm down, and it looked to Brittany as though her had a worried look on his face.

"I see him, Jack!" he growled through gritted teeth.

There were a few moment of heavy silence, and then the crack of gunshots filled the air. Everyone screamed and ducked. Brittany had been yanked to the ground by Bobby. She was dizzy and everything seemed to be swimming in front of her from the sudden motion. She blinked and shook her head. A pale blur suddenly appeared in front of her face, and it took her a few seconds to realize it was Jack's hand. She grabbed it and heaved herself up. As her vision slowly regained focus, she saw Angel and Bobby running after the two guys that had shot at them. Without a second thought she ran after them, with Jack bringing up the rear. Her heart was already pounding, but she felt like she could run forever.

They chased the two guys out of the club and into the parking lot in the back. They had already gotten into their car, and were getting ready to speed away. Jack, who had the shotgun, fired off two shots. He missed. Bobby shouted something at him, but Brittany was already dashing for the car. The others followed her. She and Jack piled into the backseat and Bobby and Angel slid into the front. Bobby slammed the car into gear and peeled out of the parking lot. Brittany was thrown backwards as Bobby floored the car. They zoomed out of the parking lot and down the street, where they could just see the other car ahead of them. The snowstorm was getting worse.

"Punch it, Bobby!" Angel yelled. The car was fish-tailing from side-to-side.

"I got no traction, man!" Bobby yelled back, "I'm sliding all over the fucking street!"

Ahead of them, Brittany saw the other car turn a sharp corner and braced herself as Bobby attempted to follow them. She felt the car slam into the side of a line of parked cars on the other side of the street, and was thrown sideways into Jack's lap. He tried to get back going, and she could hear the metallic scratching sound as Bobby drove past the cars. Brittany pushed herself back up, ignoring Jack's look of concern. Up in front, Bobby was swearing.

"Scraped the entire side of my fucking car," he muttered.

"You going to get these guys before you kill us?" Jack asked him. Bobby glanced quickly back at him.

"Just sit back and put your seat belt on, Jack!" Moments after Bobby got his eyes back on the road, Brittany heard the firing of more gunshots and she flung herself sideways again as two bullets slammed through the windshield. She swore. Bobby swore. Angel swore as he loaded his gun.

"Where the hell's the shotgun, Jack?" Bobby shouted. Jack checked it, and Brittany could have sworn she heard him curse too.

"There's no shells!" he shouted back at Bobby.

"They're in the trunk!"

"Well how am I supposed to-"

"Just shut up and put your seat belt on!"

As Brittany sat back up for the second time, she could feel that her face was contorted with anger. She watched as Angel rolled down his window and stuck the gun out the window. Both she and Bobby shouted encouragement at him as he took aim. Jack sat in silence in the back, holding on tight to his seatbelt. Angel fired off several shots and the car swerved along the road. Brittany watched as holes appeared in the back window of the other car. Suddenly, the car in front of them began careening wildly from side-to-side. She grinned triumphantly.

"You got him!" Bobby yelled enthusiastically. They all watched as the car hit a snowbank. Whoever was driving gunned it, getting nothing but spinning tired. "You guys got your seat belts on? Watch this!" In the backseat, Jack grabbed hold of his seat belt and kept a tight grip. Brittany fumbled with hers, having neglected to put it on, before giving up and just holding on to Jack as tightly as she could. She clasped her fingers around his jacket just in time as Bobby rammed right into the other car, knocking them out to snowbank. It spun around a few times and then jolted to a stop. Brittany could only imagine the pain the person Angel shot must be in.

"Damn, Bobby!" she shouted as she sat back up in her seat for the third time. She looked out the window, hoping the see the other car totaled, but no luck. The rear end was crushed, but in just a few seconds it was speeding along the road again. Brittany swore as Bobby tore after them. One of the guys in the other car, stuck his head out the window and fired off a few more shots at them. Brittany through herself sideways once again and when she sat up, the look in her eyes had to be scary. She'd had enough of this.

"Angel, give me the goddamn gun!" she ordered, completely forgetting about her own, and something in her voice must have sounded real serious, because Angel passed the gun back to her with no questions. She grabbed it and tried rolling the window down to quickly. The handle broke off in her hand. She threw it angrily to the ground and then turned so that her back was braced against Jack's shoulders. She lifted both of her feet in the air and then kicked the window out.

"Hey!" Bobby yelled back to her from the driver's seat, "What the hell are you doing to my car?"

"What, did you think you were going to keep it after this?" Brittany asked him rhetorically. There was no way they were keeping this car when this was all said and done. With the window now "open", she stuck her head out the window and then got half her torso out as well. She got the gun aimed, and pulled the trigger several times in rapid succession.

Suddenly, there was a loud sound almost like an explosion on the left side of the car as the tire blew out, and Brittany almost went flying out of the car. She banged her ribs hard on the bottom edge of where the window used to be. Jack, and her brothers all shouted as Jack quickly pulled her back into the car. She winced, her ribs feeling like someone had stabbed her. She didn't try moving this time, just leaned against Jack, as she passed the gun back to Angel. She didn't even want to see the look on Jack's face.

"We got a fucking blowout!" Bobby said. No kidding, was all Brittany could think.

"Bobby, lets just stop OK?" Jack pleaded from the backseat, "Lets just stop."

"No way, Jackie," Bobby replied, "I'm gonna ride this bitch out on the rim. We got these motherfuckers." And so the case continued. Brittany finally managed to sit up, still full of fury. She refused to look at Jack. This was not like her, this was not how she was supposed to act. But she wanted those guys to pay. She wanted them dead. It didn't take long for them to catch up with the other car.

"Come on, Bobby, get 'em!" Brittany and Angel both shouted with demented zeal. Bobby complied as he bumped the back of the car hard, sending it into a horizontal spiral. It turned completely around several times as they continued following it.

"Here we go!" Bobby said, and slammed on the brakes and turning the car so they hit the side of the other one. The shooters' car went rolling down the road at least three times before landing on its roof many yards away.

There was a small pause in the car where no one moved. They all just sat there in silence, all of them breathing heavily. Finally, they all opened their doors and got out of the car. Bobby held out his hand to Brittany, and for a second she didn't know what he wanted. And then she remembered the gun she kept hidden under her sweatshirt and took it out. She handed it to him, knowing full well what he wanted to do with it. They deserved it.

"Jack, Brittany, you stay here," Bobby told them and then he and Angel walked away in the flurry of snow. They were hardly visible as they reached the other car. All Brittany and Jack could do was listen to the shouting and the grunting. Oh no, Jack. Suddenly, Brittany felt all of her rage for the guys who shot her mother slide away, and her only feeling was of concern for Jack. She grabbed his arm.

"Jack, look away," she begged him, but he seemed lost in his own world as he stared off into the blizzard to where he seemed to sense his two brothers were aiming guns at two other human beings, "Please, Jack, look awa-" But, at that moment, two gunshots cracked through the silence of the storm, and she felt Jack flinch and turn away. She could hardly bare the frightened look on his face. Bobby and Angel came jogging back, and they all got into the car, driving away from the scene.

Back at the house, Brittany went straight to the room she and Jack shared. Jack had to pee. Brittany glanced out her window as she watched Bobby drive away to go dump the car. She closed the blinds and went to go sit on the bed. Bending hurt, but she tried not to show the pain. Jack must have been worried sick about her in the car. It pained her enough to think about it. She rested her elbows on her knees and buried her face in her hands. She heard the toilet flush next door, and looked up as Jack entered the room. He closed the door behind him and looked at her, his eyes intense pools of emotion. She couldn't take it, anymore. She stood up and rushed to him, burying her face in his chest.

"Jack, I'm so sorry," she said thickly, tears stinging her face.

"Its OK," he said, seeming to know what she was apologizing for, "I'm OK." Brittany stepped back, wiping her eyes.

"I never wanted you to see anything like that again," she told him.

"I know, but it had to be done. I wanted it done...I just never knew how I would feel watching it done." They both went over to the bed and laid down next to each other. They stayed like that until they started nodding off. Brittany was almost fully asleep, but the sound of the front door opening and closing stopped her. Bobby was home. She looked over at Jack. He was completely knocked out. She got up carefully, not wanting to disturb him, and then headed for the staircase

Downstairs, Bobby was taking off his jacket. He paused as he saw Brittany come down the steps, and then hung his jacket on the coat rack. He headed for the living room, and she followed him. He collapsed on the couch and she took an armchair. Again, nothing was said for a few minutes. Nothing but silence.

"How's your arm?" Brittany finally asked him.

"How're you ribs?" he asked her. Neither of them answered. They both just sighed.

"Is, Jack, OK?" Bobby asked her. This time Brittany did answer.

"I guess," she said with a shrug, "I mean he just saw his brothers off two guys. He says hes OK, but who knows?"

"I would guess you would." Brittany gave him a 'Shut up' kind of look.

"OK, you want my opinion? I think hes completely messed up about it. He feels the same way we do. The people who killed mom need to pay, but I don't think he thought about how brutal this was going to be."

"Hes a Mercer," Bobby said, "He'll be fine." Brittany could have hit him again.

"Are you dense?" she cried, trying to keep her voice low, "Jack is not meant for this kind of thing. You sit there like what happened to night is nothing. Like its a regular day for you. Do you understand that Jack is not like you, Bobby?" Bobby sat up and pointed a finger at her.

"Listen," he told her firmly, "I didn't ask those guys to shoot Mom. I didn't ask for all of this to happen. I was perfectly content with my life. But I'm not going to let anyone get away with this. You knew it from the moment you saw me arrive late to Jerry's house after the funeral. This is not over." Brittany looked to the ground. She almost felt bad. She knew Bobby meant well. He really did. He was just...being Bobby.

"I know. I just hate it." She got up, not wanting to say anything else and headed for the staircase. She stopped at the first step.

"I love you, asshole," she said sincerely. There was a pause and then...

"I love you too, Jersey." With a smile on her face, but her heart weighing heavy, Brittany headed for bed.


	7. Two Lovebirds

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Four Brothers characters. I take credit for Brittany and Brittany only.

Note: Yeah, this chapter is so overdue its not even funny O.o All of my faithful reviewers have probably abandoned me and moved on to authors who keep up with their chapters lol But hopefully I'm better about getting the next few chapters done because I'm almost finished. Just three more chapters to go, and then I can move on to the sequel! Yay sequel! I think the sequel will be pretty nifty. I hope you enjoy this chapter. I wanted to finally give Brittany and Jack a real moment in the spotlight, really show them act like how in love they really are before this story ends. Well, I think thats it. Now go on, read and review!

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**Chapter Seven: Two Lovebirds**

Brittany woke up of her own accord, but she didn't try sitting up right away. She prodded her ribs with her fingertips and was unable to hold back a loud hiss of pain. She hadn't thought to check for breaks last night. Way too much on her mind then. Oh well, nothing for it. She glanced sideways to the floor, and noted that Jack was gone. She could hear voices in the other rooms, telling her that she was the last one to wake up. She was sure Bobby would have something to say about that. But for now it was a good thing. She could tend to her injury quickly without anyone freaking out about it. Especially Jack. He didn't need to see the gigantic bruise she was sure existed on her torso.

"Damn car," she mumbled as she gingerly sat up, her face contorting in a wince. She couldn't blame anyone for her pain, so she decided to blame the car. When the pain had ebbed to a dull ache, she swung her legs over the side of the bed, and repeated the process for standing up.

Taking off the double layer of sweatshirts that she had been wearing for about two days, Brittany glanced at herself in the mirror that hung on the wall. She knew she usually looked a little ragged from staying up with Jack in recording studios or partying with the band mates, but this was a different kind of tired. The bags under her eyes were terribly dark, and her skin was not looking as flawless as it once did. As much as she disliked using makeup, she thought she may have to do something to make herself look a little less like a corpse. With a resolute sigh, she proceeded with the inevitable and lifted up the bottom of her black t-shirt. She grimaced, but it didn't look as bad as she'd feared it might. The impact point was an angry reddish purple, and a large bruise radius surrounded it, already yellowing from time.

"Damn car," she repeated, not able to think of anything else to say, and then she went about covering up the bags under her eyes as much as she could. Brittany peeked at the door to the bedroom, making sure no one was about ready to burst inside, and quickly grabbed a large wad of gauze bandages from her backpack. She stood back in front of the mirror, shed the tee shirt she was wearing, and carefully began wrapping the bandages around her torso. Ideally, this would require two people, but since that was out of the question, she continued the sloppy work, and finished off with an untidy knot. It didn't look that great, but it would at least provide padding while it healed.

Feeling a little better, she sat back down on the bed and grabbed a clean tee shirt from her bag. She was slipping it on when Jack walked into the room. Brittany froze with just the top half of her head poking up through the collar. She gazed up at him, but his eyes were locked on her bandaged ribs, which were still exposed. When his eyes moved up to meet with hers, she finished putting the shirt on. Things were silent for a few moments, and then they heard Angel shout something from the back door.

"Yo, police in the house!"

Forgetting about her wound, Brittany stood up quickly, and paid for it. She grabbed her ribs with an arm, wincing in pain, and Jack rushed to her side. Still neither of them spoke. She just waved him off and then headed for the stairs, knowing he was right behind her. Green and his partner, Fowler, were already in the living room with Bobby and Angel. Brittany almost couldn't hold in her laughter when she saw what Bobby was wearing, it looked like something she had seen Sofi in some morning, but she managed and leaned against the doorway, trying to be careful of her ribs. Jack sidled up next to her, and surprisingly he didn't look like he was worrying about her. He was paying attention to the exchange going on with their brothers and the cops. Brittany didn't know whether to feel good about that or worried, so she copied Jack and focused on what was going on in the living room.

"You know when I'll know you got my hair of a dead body right?" Bobby was saying to Fowler, who had just tried fishing for a confession to the murder of the two shooters last night with a phony hair. Brittany rolled her eyes. Amateur. "When I hear the jail house doors slam behind me, girls."

"Alright," Green said, "Then _you_ tell _me _what they said. You think these thugs were hired to shoot Evelyn?" Apparently, the cops had found their little crime scene from last night.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Bobby answered casually, running a hand over his hair.

"Green," Angel spoke up, "How do you go from petty thugs, to contract killers? And if they were professional shooters like you say, they wouldn't have told us who they were working for anyway?" Brittany smiled discreetly at the floor. Her brothers were such smart asses.

"You think you're real cute don't you?" Fowler said to Angel, "Yeah, everyone thinks they're cute till I bust them in the mouth." He then started moving towards Angel who was sitting on the couch with Bobby. Green, Jack, and Brittany all rushed forward to get between them. Someone's arm must have collided with Brittany's injured ribs because her side flared with pain and she quickly stepped backward. Thankfully, everyone seemed to occupied with Fowler and Angel to notice. Except Jack, of course. She saw him look over at her, that concern in his eyes that crushed her heart.

Unnoticed, Brittany slipped away from the living room, back up the stairs, and into the bedroom she shared with Jack. She spread out on the bed, exhaling deeply as she gently rubbed her ribs. It wasn't long until Jack joined her, shutting the door behind him. He stood there, staring at her with that hurt look in his eyes. That look that told her how worried he was. It wasn't long after that till she couldn't take it anymore.

"I'm fine, Jack," she said, looking determinedly away from his gaze.

"Tell that to your ribcage," he said flatly, "Why didn't you say anything last night about being hurt?" Brittany sighed and sat up gingerly so she could lean against the wall and look at him properly.

"Well, honestly," she told him, "I was way too tired last night when we got home to care. Look, I examined them this morning and there's nothing broken. I just bruised them a bit." Jack arched and eyebrow at her, but he said nothing. Brittany knew that he couldn't refute that information, because there was no way he could tell. He heaved a sigh and then sat down on the edge of the bed.

"I just worry about you, that's all," he mumbled. Brittany gave a groaning sigh, feeling that tearing feeling in her heart when she saw him so subdued. She slowly and carefully crawled over to him and sat beside him, leaning her head on his shoulder.

"I know you do," she said gently, grabbing one of his hands and wrapping the arm around her waist. Her ribs made no objection, and they just sat like that a while.

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Later that night, Brittany, Jack, Bobby, and Angel were all sitting in the living room. Brittany and Jack were curled up on the couch. Bobby and Angel were looking through the wallets they took off the two shooters. Sofi was in the kitchen cooking something. She'd been in there for hours. Whatever it was didn't smell entirely appetizing. Brittany's ribs felt better, making her think that it really was just bad bruising. She didn't want to think about how yellow her skin looked by now. She was watching the hockey game on television, it seemed to be the only thing ever on in the Mercer house, but she was also trying to listen to what her big brothers were talking about. She heard Bobby say something about the waterfront, and Angel agreeing with him.

"Well, let's go take a look." Bobby stood up. Brittany quickly got up from the couch. Jack looked up to see what the commotion was, and then followed Brittany. All four of them made to leave, but they hit an obstacle. Sofi rushed to the living room doorway, standing in front of Angel. She looked pissed.

"Angel, sweetie," she said in an overly sugary voice, "Wasn't there something mentioned about a dinner together? Because I seem to remember spending two hours in the kitchen." Angel seemed to be struggling.

"Baby, we got some heavy shit to deal with." Bobby, of course, had to chime in at this point which sent Sofi into a fit, and the two of them began yelling at each other. The three, Brittany, Jack, and Bobby, finally had to leave Angel to deal with his girl while they took care of business.

It didn't take long to get to the waterfront house. The brown paint was peeling from the house, making it look like a snake shedding its skin. Some of the windows had been knocked out, probably by rock projectiles, and had been repaired by a garbage bag taped up on the inside. Without a car, the Mercers had to there, and it was still freezing outside. Bobby entered the house first, his gun out and at the ready. Brittany and Jack stood at the end of the walkway, arms around each other for warmth, waiting for the "all clear" sign. When Bobby gave it to them they all crept around the back of the house. Brittany stepped up to the back door and took a bobby pin from her pocket. Lock picking had always been a specialty of hers. Just a few seconds later the door was open and they entered a small laundry room.

"Eww," Brittany said as she walked into the main part of the house. The sound broke the silence so suddenly that both Jack and Bobby leaped into the air and turned around. Brittany looked at them, embarrassed as she scraped what looked like animal feces from the bottom of her shoe. She mouthed 'Sorry' and they continued on.

"You two take the living room," Bobby instructed when they got to the kitchen doorway, "I'll check the bedrooms. Grab, anything that you think might be helpful, just be careful. God knows what these scumbags have lying around." The living room was directly in front of them, so Bobby headed off to the left. As though as an afterthought he looked back over his shoulder at them. "No screwing around." Then he disappeared into the other room. Brittany rolled her eyes.

She and Jack spent a few minutes scouring the living room. Jack looked in the drawers, Brittany poked around under the cushions of the couch. Somehow during the search the two managed to back into each other as they worked their way around the room. Jack jumped a little, and Brittany hissed in pain from her ribs, though the pain wasn't as bad as it had been that morning. Jack spun around quick as lightning and stared alarmingly at her. Her face was still screwed up in a wince, but she raised one hand to wave like 'I'm alright'. Jack paid the gesture no heed, however, as he gently wrapped his arms around her in a loose embrace. The pain slowly went away and Brittany looked up into those beautiful blue eyes that were so filled with concern.

"I said I was OK, Jack," she said quietly.

"You always say that," he replied just as softly, not removing his arms from around her. She noticed a lock of his hair had fallen out of its carefully positioned spot on his head and brushed it back with one of her hands. Their eyes locked again, and once more Brittany was struck by the absolute power those azure eyes had.

Before she even realized it, she and Jack were kissing, arms wrapped tightly around each other, Brittany not even noticing that her ribs were protesting the sudden contact with Jack's body. She could only remember a handful of times they had ever kissed like this. They had never been a normal couple in that aspect, or in many aspects. They just simply loved each other and left it at that. Unless they were drunk. Now here they were, completely sober, standing in the living room of the two men who had shot their mother and they were kissing each other. They were kissing each other and enjoying every moment of it. Then, of course, in true Mercer fashion, Bobby walked back into the living room, a large bag in one hand now.

"What the hell do you two think you're doing?" he asked sharply, though not as cruel as he could have sounded. Brittany and Jack sprung apart like they were on far and stared at him wide-eyed. Bobby shook his head. "Did you lovebirds at least _find_ anything while you were fucking around?" The truth was they hadn't, but thankfully for them, Jack spotted something on the side table they had overlooked next to the couch. He snatched it up and held it out to Bobby.

"Look a camera," he said brightly. Bobby grudgingly grabbed it and led the way out of house, mumbling inaudible curses under his breath. Brittany and Jack followed him, they're hands clasped together, both smiling widely.

To both Brittany and Jack's great relief, Bobby kept his mouth shut the entire ride home and let them trudge up to their room without a word about what had happened. She wondered if there was something wrong with him. Other than the obvious, of course. She and Jack, still grinning from ear-to-ear whenever they looked at each other, curled up with the sleeping bags on the floor and fell into a peaceful sleep, perhaps the first real peaceful sleep they had gotten since arriving for the funeral. Before she closed her eyes, however, Brittany wondered momentarily where this dangerous journey into the investigation of their mother's death would take them next. Two men had already been killed. How many more people in this town would be added to that list?

Waking up the next morning, Brittany felt better than she'd felt since arriving home. It was still early according to the clock on the wall. She was probably the first one awake, so she decided she would make Jack breakfast. She groaned, not unhappily, and stretched her arms above her head, smiling through a yawn. She had dreamt of Jack and the kiss they had shared the previous night, as though the scene had been playing on a loop in her head. Still smiling, she reached beside her where Jack has slept next to her on the floor and felt her hand sink into the empty blankets. Her brown eyes, which had only been slits open to the world since she woke up, shot open in a wild stare. Sitting bolt upright, Brittany ignored the dull ache in her ribs, which were still sore, and looked alarmingly around. She became suddenly aware that not only were the blankets empty, but she was completely alone in the room. A brief memory of the dream she had had the night after the funeral surfaced in her mind and all logic was lost.

"Jack!" she called as she scrambled out of her blankets, though not as loudly as her voice would have been if she wasn't so suddenly frightened. She sprinted out the door and down the hall so fast she didn't even register that it still dark outside, and she only wearing a t-shirt and her underwear.

"Jack!" A little louder this time as Brittany went through the doorway of the living room. The television was on. A middle-aged man droned on about the local news, and she felt her throat close up. She stopped in front of the couch, trying hard to swallow the lump in throat. The feeling of panic was quickly rising in his chest, causing her skin to tingle and her breath to stop short in her chest.

"Jack!" she called for the third time, her voice no more than a strangled cry now. She felt like she was watching everything in slow motion. The news anchor's lips definitely didn't look like they were moving as fast and she thought they should be. The pendulum on the nearby clock seemed to be swinging at a more sluggish pace than normal, and she was aware of a more than usual pause between her breaths. It was like be body was shutting in on her and she was drowning in herself.

"Brittany?" Still in slow motion, Brittany lifted her head at the voice, and she would never be able to describe the almost painful feeling of relief that swept over her body in one massive wave as she saw her messy-haired Jack standing in the doorway leading from the living room to the kitchen. She couldn't even say anything, she just placed her hands over her mouth, closed to her eyes, and sank down into the comfort of the couch, letting the effects of the adrenaline slowly work itself out of her body. It was mere seconds before she felt Jack sit beside her. At least her sense of time was back to normal.

"Are you okay?" he asked his voice heavy with concern. The question seemed suddenly absurd to Brittany, and in spite of the terrible emotions she had been through in less than a minute, a smile turned up the corners of her lips and she breathed a single laugh into her cupped hands.

"I thought you were gone," she said quietly, as though she didn't believe the thought had crossed her mind, "It thought you were gone." She breathed laughter again, leaned back against the couch, groaning and moving her hands to cover her entire face as the last traces of the panic attack left her and she realized she could breathe easily again.

"You thought I was gone?" Jack asked, as though he didn't believe it either, "Was it a dream?" Now _that_ was a good question, and Brittany took a moment to ponder it's answer. Had it been a dream? Or had something deep down in her gut told her that Jack had really been gone?

"Yeah," she answered, "Yeah, it was a dream." She said it without really believing it, but not knowing what to believe otherwise. She let her hands drop into her lap and turned to look into Jack's still worried face. She reached one of her hands up and let it rest against his cheek, feeling the warm flesh beneath her palm and finally feeling as normal as was possible these days. She broke into a grin, and was please to see him grin back. For a long moment they gazed lovingly at each other, and then they leaned forward. Brittany was so ready to kiss him she was shocked when she realized it. Almost there...

"What the hell is going on down here?" said what could only be the very groggy voice of Bobby from the stairs. Both Jack and Brittany pulled their heads back quickly, looking out of the living room to where their brother stood peering blearily at them from the steps.

"Nothing, Bobby," Brittany replied calmly, "I just had a bad dream is all." She supposed that would have to be the truth as far as anyone, even herself, was concerned. There would be no explaining what she had really experience, since she didn't even know. Bobby managed to look a little concerned through his fatigue.

"You alright?" he asked gently. She nodded and he looked to have seen it, even though she was sure his vision was slightly compromised at the moment. "Okay, well, you two get back to bed. We got stuff to do tomorrow." Brittany nodded again, and Bobby ascended back up the stairs. She looked over at Jack and they both stood up from the couch, wordlessly walking over to the stairs and climbing back up to the room they shared.

With the door shut behind them, and still without a word spoken between them, they shared the kiss that was interrupted moments earlier. It was softer, more tender than the wild kiss from the living room at the waterfront. Together they padded the floor with blankets and their sleeping bags, wearily crawling into bed. As they curled up together Brittany wrapped her arms securely, but comfortably, around Jack as they both drifted off into sleep. A thought occurred to her just as she was slipping into slumber land.

"Jack, what were you doing in the kitchen?" she mumbled, almost incoherently, but Jack was already asleep, and soon she forgot she had even spoke, and then was fast asleep next to him.


End file.
